Something Strange This Way Comes
by Shadow Master
Summary: (BtVS/Doctor Strange/DC Universe Animated Original Movie Universe) Most people are unhappy when something interferes with their plans but others see opportunity in such things. Taking advantage of that opportunity is easier said than done though.
1. Chapter 1

"Something Strange This Way Comes…"

By Shadow Master

(BtVS/Doctor Strange/DC Universe Animated Original Movie Universe)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing that at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy my work. Therefore I would appreciate it if no legal action were taken against me because I can promise you that I am nowhere near rich enough for it to be worth it for you in the end.

Note: Timeline wise I'm forced to use the ever available Halloween episode because I can think of no other way to get the desired variables into place. For the DC Universe Animated Original Movie Universe this would happen somewhere between 'Justice League: War' and 'Justice League Dark'. Naturally some of the technologies shown in the DC films will conflict with the level of tech shown in 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' so just presume that this is an AU BtVS universe where such technologies shown in the DC movies was invented sooner.

Note: 2: After watching all of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies I've seen that there is barely any timeline continuity if you watch all of them in the order they were released. For one thing in 'Justice League: War' you get the feeling that the heroes are just starting out and haven't yet earned the trust of the people. However if you leap over to the Batman movies of this universe you see Nightwing, Damian Wayne and others who should be years in the future. Therefore while I will be doing my best to stick with how things went in the movies I will be making changes in order to clean up timeline/continuity errors. That means that Dick Grayson at best will still be Robin when/if he makes an appearance, the Teen Titans will likely feature a lineup from the old 80's comics (Robin, Wonder Girl/Donna Troy, Aqualad Garth, Beast Boy, Kid Flash Wally West, etc) and other similar changes.

Note 3: I got the urge to do this after buying and watching the newest DC cartoon movie 'Justice League Dark'. I like it and wondered what'd happen if I brought a sorcerer from Marvel Comics into that world.

Shall we find out?

 _ **Something Strange This Way Comes…**_

 _ **Two Days to Halloween**_

 _ **Xander's POV**_

"So what're you going to dress up as?" Willow asked as they left the school grounds at the end of the day.

"I don't know. I'll think of something," he replied even as they reached the sidewalk.

The truth of the matter was that he had nothing at home that could be used to make a costume without making it painfully obvious that he was barely above the poverty line in terms of funds. His parents, if you could call them that, didn't give him anything resembling an allowance, which meant all he could do was search the couch, skim some change off of the booze runs he was sent on and what he could get from the local bottle depot. Most of the time that was just enough to feed his Twinkie habit but, if he saved long enough, he could get some new clothes from the local thrift store that weren't too outdated. Most of what he'd saved over the last five years was meant to go towards the road trip he planned on taking after graduation.

He wasn't about to tap into his savings just because he'd gotten press ganged into Snyder's Halloween chaperoning job.

Still, that left him with looking for cheap odds and ends that he could slap together into a feasible costume that'd look at least somewhat cool. He knew that there was an army surplus store that handed out old army fatigues for just a little more than the price of a bottle of soda. He figured that if he could get a toy gun from a store selling Halloween costumes that'd make for a decent soldier costume. Still, even as he thought so, a pang of wanting echoed within him, a wanting to be something more impressive, but it was nothing new. Ever since Tony had lost his third job in twice as many months he'd been forced to be content with whatever scraps of happiness he could get and push on through when luck didn't turn his way.

If karma really was something real then it was looking like he'd have one helluva retirement.

"See you later, Xander," Willow said as she turned in the direction of her house and walked away.

As he walked down the sidewalk to the place where he slept but did not call home, he spotted something that caught his attention. Off in the part of the parking lot where the faculty members parked he saw Giles signing for something and a delivery guy unloading some boxes from a delivery van. The boxes were a mix of cardboard and metal ones but all of them looked rather heavy. G-Man might not be ENTIRELY over the hill when it came to fighting demons but he was no spring chicken either. Deciding that this was as good an excuse as any for him to stay away from the house, he changed course.

"Yes, that should do it," Giles said, handing the clipboard with the paper on it back to the delivery guy.

"Thanks. Have a nice day," the delivery guy said before heading for the driver's side of the van.

"Need any help, G-Man?" he asked, walking up to the Brit. "Looks like you got a ton of stuff to carry in."

"Yes. The latest consignment of resources from the Council for what their seers believe might be coming to the Hellmouth next," Giles replied as he reached down for a cardboard box. "Books, talismans, scrolls and ingredients. I'll likely be spending the next week cataloguing everything as well as finding places to hide them so that Principal Snyder cannot locate them."

"I'll help you get the stuff in." he said, picking up one of the heavier looking metal boxes. "Don't want you to throw your back out."

"I am hardly that old, Xander, but I thank you for the help nonetheless," Giles said with his usual dry tone.

With both of their arms full they went back into the school and deposited their loads on the library table before going back for the rest. It took a little over ten minutes to get everything in and at once Giles went to work unpacking the various items, starting with the metal box. Inside were some books, some smaller metal boxes with odd looking locks on them… and some kind of amulet that had a design that looked like it'd been decided by committee. Somewhat oval shaped with small metal square plates linked together for hanging around a neck instead of a gold, brass or silver chain, it definitely won an award for originality.

"What's this, Giles?" he asked, holding up the item for the Watcher to see.

"What…oh…it's a talisman for granting the user access to the Sight," Giles replied, glancing in the item's direction.

"The what now?" he asked, not sure if he'd heard the man correctly.

"The Sight. It's a mystical ability that allows a person to perceive supernatural energy ranging from demonic to magical the same way you perceive light or smoke," Giles replied even as he set some books on the table. "It is useful in perceiving forces invisible to the naked eye as well as deducing their nature. They were created by a powerful Tibetan mystic over six hundred years ago."

"They?" he asked, catching the importance of the word.

"Yes. The mystic only created three, one for himself while the other two went to his apprentices, and to this day no one has been able to replicate his work," Giles replied, taking a closer look at the cover of a book. "It has been giving the Council's R&D division frothing fits trying, though. Rumor has it that there's a wager between the lot of them that the one who can pull it off gets an expensive bottle of black label liquor from each of them."

"How many people are in the division?" he asked out of curiosity.

"Thirty-seven last I checked," Giles replied, sounding a little amused. "Whoever wins is going to get himself bloody plastered. Or dead from alcohol poisoning."

He chuckled even as he looked the talisman over from all angles.

Then he had an epiphany.

"Hey Giles? Is this thing dangerous?" he asked, looking at the wise man.

"Only if the user is exposed to a surge of energy while using it. It would basically be the equivalent of wearing night vision goggles only for someone to turn on a flashlight in your face," Giles replied, not sounding worried.

"So someone couldn't, say… drop it and set off a magical explosion or something?" he asked, trying to make sure he wasn't setting himself up for something bad.

"Oh, no, no, the user must be a qualified mystic in order to even activate it," Giles replied, waving his hand dismissively. "Without the right activation chant as well as an arcane spark to get the ball rolling, it is little more than a paperweight."

"Then… could I… borrow it?" he asked, hoping that his idea would be allowed to come to life.

"Whatever for?" Giles asked, stopping his work for the moment.

"For Halloween. You might've heard how Snyder 'volunteered' some people to chaperone some kids around for two hours. Well, he got me, Willow and Buffy," he replied, laying out the important facts. "Thing is I don't have a lot of money to spend on a costume so I gotta grab what I can afford and come up with a costume."

"And you require the talisman because…?" Giles asked, apparently looking for more elaboration before giving consent.

"I thought I could use it for a kick ass magician outfit," he replied, revealing his idea to the man. "I figure with this around my neck, a cape and a few other things and I'll have a costume."

"I suppose it will be alright," Giles said after a moment's thought. "Pick it up before you go chaperoning and return it as soon as you're back. It might not be dangerous but it will be my head if you lose it."

"Don't worry. Won't leave my neck the entire night," he promised, making a mental note in stone to keep an eye on the talisman thoroughly.

"Then I wish you the best of luck in putting together your costume," Giles said before returning to his work.

He stayed to help for another hour before heading home and luckily his parents were already unconscious from their overindulgence in alcohol. What a waste. The things he'd seen since finding out the supernatural was fact rather than fiction were more than enough to drive most people to drink, but not him. He'd just kept soldiering on. If he could face off against demons, vampires and the forces of darkness without going anywhere near so much as a can of beer, they should be able to endure the usual human troubles without buying out most of the liquor at the local store. With a sneer of contempt he went up to his room and locked the door behind him. It'd give him a few seconds of lead time if Tony came calling so he could get out the window and around the corner before Tony could lay eyes on him.

 _Okay. So I've got a magical looking amulet that's actually magical and I'm pretty sure I can find something that can pass for a cape,_ he thought as he sat on his bed. _What else do magicians wear?_

Thinking up all the magicians he knew of, the ones that came to mind first were David Copperfield and Siegfried & Roy. One of the things they often wore on stage were big, poofy shirts, like the kind you'd see swashbuckler's would wear in old pirate movies. They looked a little gay to him but he'd just make sure that they were as minimally poofy as he could find and maybe a darker color so it wouldn't be as noticeable. Some simple black pants would be good enough, along with some dress shoes. Put them all together with the rest and in his mind it looked to be quite a good costume not to mention enough for the job that lay ahead of him.

He just hoped that this turned out to be one of his better ideas and not one of his bad ones.

 _ **Ethan's Costume Shop**_

 _ **Halloween Night**_

 _ **Xander's POV**_

 _Okay, so I got the shirt, the pants and the shoes,_ he thought as he looked about the store. _But nothing I tried to use as a cape looked right. Tying a bed sheet around my neck would just make me look like a kid._

He needed something more professional looking and hopefully he'd find it here.

Trying his best to ignore Buffy as she cooed over some fluffy and frilly dress that looked to be more than a century out of date, he let his eyes drift in search of the perfect cape. There were plenty of Dracula capes as well as some superhero capes but he'd die before he wore the former and the latter had symbols on them. Casually walking down the aisle, he tried to find something that said 'magic' but also wasn't so flashy that it could be mistaken for circus material. Worst of all was the fact that the capes weren't all in one section but rather mixed in with the different genre of costumes, so he couldn't just quickly go through them all. Time passed but, when he looked at his watch, he saw that they had a little over an hour before herr Snyder had said to be at the school.

"Something troubling you, lad?" a voice asked, startling him out of his thoughts and causing him to jump out of fright.

"YIPES! Don't DO that!" he said, turning around to see a dark haired man old enough to be his uncle. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry. Old habits die hard," the man said with a rehearsed smile. "Now, is there something I can help you with?"

"Not unless you have more capes stored out back," he replied, calming down a bit. "I've got most of what I need for a magician costume but none of the capes I've seen look right."

"Yes, well, I see it as a sign of the times that magicians and sorcerers are no longer 'cool' enough to be the costume of choice on Halloween," the man said, showing his disapproval. "Not with superheroes and other mass media drivel."

"So you got anything else out back?" he asked, hoping that he wouldn't have to make do with something else.

"Hmmmm… perhaps. There was one box extra that came with the costumes that I didn't put out," the man said, scratching his chin somewhat. "I'd only planned on putting the contents on the shelf if I started to run dry out here. Give me a moment and I'll see if I can find anything."

Nodding, he watched as the man walked to the curtained off room to the rear of the main store area before letting his attention flutter from place to place, seeking distraction. Motion of approach caught his eye and he turned to watch Buffy and Willow walking up to him, costumes in their arms.

"You find anything, Xander?" Buffy asked, holding the dress in her arms.

"Maybe. One of the guys that works here is going to check out back," he replied, trying to sound more optimistic than he really was. "I see you guys found costumes."

"Yep! A time honored classic!" Willow declared proudly, holding up a packaged ghost costume.

 _Looks like another strike out,_ he thought with a sigh, remembering Halloweens past. _Guess Buffy being around hasn't been enough for her to try something better._

"Not as classic but definitely the costume for me," Buffy said, holding up the fluffy dressed she'd been admiring earlier. "Angel's gonna love it!"

Figured.

While he'd been entertaining the possibility that the Slayer would choose a costume based on her own personal likes and imagination, it looked like Deadboy had won again. It pissed the hell out of him that she preferred a corpse, A VAMPIRE, as her boyfriend instead of a living human teenage male. Oh, her little naughty dance at the beginning of the school year had pretty much run a metaphorical dagger through the heart of his own romantic feelings for her but he still cared for her as a friend. Didn't she see that a relationship with Angel was doomed to failure? He'd outlive her by centuries so long as he had a steady supply of blood while she'd grow old and die so long as something didn't kill her first. He couldn't give her children, couldn't go out in the sun AND could be host to god knew how many diseases that thrived in dead human bodies. But all she and Willow saw was how 'romantic' the whole star-crossed lovers thing was, along with how well they fought together.

Never mind the fact that Angel had been willing to sit on his ass and let Buffy die just because of some prophecy!

With a mental sigh he let his anger go, knowing that any attempt by him to make the two girls wake up to the realities of the relationship would only get him called 'jealous' by both of them.

"Well, I'm gonna keep what I'm dressing up as until later," he said, deciding to keep the truth a secret. "You'll see at the school when we pick up our brat packs."

"Sounds like fun," Buffy said before turning her head. "Looks like he found something."

Turning, he watched as the man he'd been talking too came out carrying a wardrobe bag like the one Tony's formal suit was gathering dust in.

"Well, it took some doing but I managed to find something I think you'll like," the man said as he partially unzipped the bag. "What do you think?"

Stepping into his friends' line of sight so that they wouldn't get a peek, he pulled aside the opening in the bag. Inside there was indeed a cape and it was a dark crimson color but it also had a golden clasp in front to keep it on the wearer, with a gold with black embroidery pattern along the edges. All in all, the cape didn't look all that flashy and, if he was right, it would only drop from his shoulders to just above his ankles once he put it on. There was just one thing he wasn't sure about.

"What do you think? Is the flaring at the top too much?" he asked the guy since he was pretty sure the man had seen it before bringing it out.

"Well, given your desired costume I think a little flamboyancy is required," the man replied, sounding oddly honest. "Besides which, it'd look too much like a bed sheet if you took it off."

Point.

"How much for it then?" he asked, hoping it wasn't more than he had on him at the moment.

"I'll tell you what, young man," the guy said as he zipped the wardrobe bag back up. "In the spirit of the evening to come and the wonderful costume your blonde friend chose, I'm willing to give it to you for HALF of whatever you have on you."

A part of him flared in warning at such a generous offer but sadly that part was quickly gagged, tied up and shoved into the nearest mental closet by the rest of him. It was a good cape and, with the money he'd have left, he'd be able to buy an extra bag of Halloween treats after the brats were dealt with, so it was too nice a deal to pass up.

"Deal!" he said fishing the money out of his pocket before counting out half and turning it over to the man.

"Then here is the last piece of your costume, young man," the store employee said, passing him the wardrobe bag. "I hope it makes your costume everything you hoped it would be."

"See you guys at school!" he said as he began to make his way towards the entrance. "I gotta get the rest of the stuff!"

"Sure! See you there!" Buffy yelled at him as he turned away from his two friends.

A few seconds later he was outside and moving at a little below a jog to get back to his house so he could grab it and then get to the school. Sure, he'd originally planned on spinning by Buffy's place so that they could all walk to their forced chaperoning together but he still had to pick up the talisman thing from Giles at the library. Considering the time that was left before Snyder's deadline, he didn't have the time to go home, go to the school, go to Buffy's and then come back to the school. Better to sprint home, grab the rest of his costume and then sprint to the school, where he could get dressed in G-Man's office. Doing it that way he'd stand the best chance of being able to make it to the student lounge in time for Snyder's deadline.

Then again, knowing the troll, he'd probably pull some hidden fine print out of his ass even if they made the four o'clock deadline just to prove how much of a bastard he could be.

 _ **Sunnydale High School**_

 _ **Student Lounge, Buffy's POV**_

"Where is he?" Willow asked, looking one way and then the other for her best friend.

"He'll be here," she said, keeping an eye out for Snyder in case she had to take a stab at the whole 'I just saw him a minute ago' excuse.

Not that it'd fly with Snyder but she still owed it to her best friend to try.

It'd taken a little while but she finally understood and felt a little guilty for what she'd done to him during lunch. At the time it'd seemed like the most natural thing, a friend was in trouble so she helped, but now she realized that by not letting him handle it himself she made him look weak in front of everyone else. If there was one thing that she remembered about Hemery it was that the weak made juicy targets for the powerful cliques in the high school, mostly because they were easily intimidated, manipulated and terrorized without fear of consequences. As the most popular and arguably the most powerful students in the school, the faculty knew they'd get in more trouble for causing trouble for the VIPs of the student body than the nobodies. As long as the various cliques didn't do anything to bring the cops in, they were pretty much given free reign to manage their own affairs.

She thought it wasn't as bad in Sunnydale High School, what with it not being LA, but apparently even if it wasn't it was still bad enough to hurt Xander.

Right then and there she'd made a promise not to interfere if the scene repeated itself in the future and to think of a way to make it up to him later. She wasn't do anything crazy like go out on a date with him or dress up in some spandex outfit next Halloween, but she would offer to pay for a few boxes of Twinkies and maybe have her mom make him a batch of her famous brownies. She figured that'd be enough to get him to not only forgive her but also get her back into his good books.

"There he is!" Willow exclaimed, causing her to look.

When she picked Xander out of the crowd she wasn't sure what to make of his costume. A red and gold cape, a dark blue poet shirt, black pants and some kind of gold medallion that probably went out of style in the middle ages. Altogether it was definitely an original costume but it also made it hard to figure out just what her only guy friend was pretending to be.

"Made it! And with a whole two minutes to spare!" Xander said, looking both triumphant and relieved.

"Looks like neither of us are going to get our heads put on the chopping block tonight," she said, grinning at her friend's emotive declaration. "Nice costume but… what is it exactly? I can't figure out who or what you're trying to be."

"I'm a magician, though I haven't quite decided if I'm a stage magician or more like Merlin," he replied, letting the cape flare out a bit. "Probably the latter since it'd be cooler to be like Arthur's right hand man."

With that bit of information she gave his costume a second look and had to admit that he did look like a lot of the old style magicians you'd see in Hollywood movies. No stars or crescent moons woven into the cape, or anywhere else for that matter, but that was probably a good thing since such decorations would probably only get him picked on more.

"Alright, you reprobates, listen up! You will approach the table one at a time and I will assign you your group of children," Snyder said loud enough so that everyone could hear him. "You will not speak with them in any way aside from telling them to follow you and to get moving! I don't want any of your slacker tendencies to rub off on them."

 _No. Instead you want them to think everyone older than them doesn't care or will be mean to them for no reason,_ she thought, snarking in her head since saying anything out loud would only make things harder.

Like kids being led to the hangman's noose they all went up one by one to get their group of kids and, once assigned, the forced chaperoner led the group out of the school to the waiting streets outside. It was a few minutes before she got her chance but when she saw the adorable group of five that she'd be leading she bent over to welcome them, only to hear a harsh cough from Snyder.

"No talking," Snyder reminded her with a stern 'do not defy me' look on his face.

Keeping the sour look on her face to a minimum, she gestured for the kids to follow her before heading for the exit, wanting to get as far from Snyder as she could. Once the kids got caught up with trick or treating she could grumble to herself and vent her displeasure at the principal since, as the Slayer, she wasn't permitted to kill him like she SO wanted to.

Heading in the direction of the main residential area of Sunnydale, she watched the kids, both her own as well as those whose parents were escorting them about, running about in their quest for candy. She remembered when she was that young and all Halloween meant for her was a chance to dress up in something pretty and get a lot of candy without her parents holding her back. By the end of the night she'd usually have managed to fill three pillow cases worth of candy while consuming a fair bit of it before going off to bed.

Those were simpler times.

Back then she believed her parents when they told her that monsters didn't exist.

She believed that the meanest thing a person could do to her was ruin her prettiest dress.

Now? Now she couldn't help but look about as she escorted the kids, keeping an eye on all the alleyways while keeping her eyes peeled for anything Hellmouthy. She knew that Giles had said that demons took the night off but she couldn't help but wonder if tonight might be the one exception. Spike was out there, after all, and he didn't strike her as the type to adhere to traditions of any sort unless they were fun somehow. Indeed, according to the word on the street, Spike had killed The Anointed One not long after arriving in Sunnydale and had successfully taken control of the vamps, killing any who didn't follow orders. A vampire like that would be just the type to throw out the 'stay indoors' policy most demons had when it came to Halloween.

She'd been tempted at home to try and slide a few vamp killing tools into hiding places throughout her outfit but had thrust the idea aside. This was the one night a year when she could forget about being the Slayer, forget about her VERY limited lifespan, and just be an ordinary girl looking to impress her boyfriend.

And if any demon or vamp tried to ruin that, she'd have them begging for mercy before the end!

Just you wait and see!

Minutes ticked by and things proceeded the way they usually did and had in countless other realities. Indeed, for the august body known as The Powers That Be had used their divine given powers of precognition to peer into future and examine all possible futures. All the ones determined to be more than thirty-five percent likely showed a minor period of chaos aboard the Hellmouth but no effects lasting for more than a month or two. More important than that, all the key players that they'd need for the next couple of years made it through the chaos without any harm coming to them, either physically or mentally.

So imagine their surprise when, upon activation of the spell, they felt a sizeable tremor echo throughout the higher planes of existence that had not been present in any of their peeks at the future.

Immediately they worked to trace the quake back to its source and, when they finished, they had to do the higher being equivalent of an exasperated sigh and rolling their eyes.

HE was responsible.

Alexander LaVelle Harris.

The young man had been a mere footnote, a youth who thought that all it took to fight demons was willpower, but when he thwarted their prophecy concerning Slayer Summers he became something more. Since then they'd kept a close watch on the mortal even as they strove to adjust their future plans to accommodate the still living Buffy Anne Summers. To their eyes he was just another mortal, brave but no more remarkable than any other human, but this only annoyed them as they failed to come up with a valid explanation for how he'd been able to defy prophecy.

Now it looked as though the young man might wind up becoming an even larger stone to be tossed into the pond of the mortal realm.

"What is happening to him?" the head of the European division asked even as something akin to a holographic projection appeared before them.

"According to these readings he is being transformed," the being in charge of North America replied even as an effort was made to gain more details. "It looks as though someone has invoked Janus' All Hallows Eve spell and whomever Harris chose to dress up as is decidedly more powerful than expected."

"Impossible!" the being in charge of the Asian branch declared dismissively. "That spell might give the wearer the mind of costume but the powers are a mere shadow of what the genuine article is depicted as possessing. It can't explain what we're seeing here."

"True. Then let us look deeper," the North American Leader said as the image before they took on a different appearance.

It still showed Alexander Harris but this time it showed the mortal purely in terms of the various forms of energy both within and surrounding him. It was then that they saw the truth and it surprised them in a way that they never thought they could be surprised. The power they were seeing wasn't coming from Janus but rather from within the young man himself. Based on what he could see, the spell was merely providing a blueprint, an arcane network of pathways, for the power coming off of the teenager. However they'd seen such blueprints in the past and they had always belonged to the most powerful of sorcerers or sorceresses.

"But he isn't of one of the empowered bloodlines," the Asian C.O. said, having trouble believing what was being shown. "We've been monitoring those since the beginning. We would have known if he was."

The empowered bloodlines were those that had consistently produced humans capable of great magic or, at the very least, had the potential to produce such a human. Whether they were homo sapien or homo magi, all who could potentially affect their plans or aid in bringing those same plans to fruition they were monitored. The strongest among them were utilized to handle threats that were just under that which would require divine intervention in order to resolve.

As a result of this monitoring, they knew without a doubt that Alexander Harris was not a member of the empowered bloodlines.

Yet…

"This may be a larger issue than we'd anticipated," the Euro-Leader said as the image projected before them split into two. "Two of the items he wears are changing and becoming more mystically powerful by the second. Then there is this."

Highlighting the desired image, the remaining two witnessed a location right at the edge of the Hellmouth's influence but it wasn't the location that was interesting but rather something else. Bit by bit something seemed to be coming into being but it was only when that something was half done that they recognized it as a large three story building.

"The House of Mystery? Or The House of Secrets?" the Asian Leader asked, finding a remarkable similarity between what they were seeing and how the named structures often manifested.

"Not likely. The former still recognizes that fool John Constantine as its caretaker and the latter is still tied to Abel," the North American Leader replied as the last bits of the house came into being. "However the similarities are rather striking."

"I don't like this," the European Head said, taking all the variables into account. "A troublemaker showing signs of high level magic, two objects gaining arcane potency usually reserved for items handed down to the heads of mystical families and now a house coming into existence from nothing. There is no way that this is all happening by chance. Someone planned this."

"Letting your paranoia get the better of you?" the North American leader asked rhetorically. "We know Wilkins isn't behind this because he would never tolerate such a rival. There is no one else in Sunnuydale that could be behind it for the same reason. As for someone from outside of Sunnydale… not impossible, but anyone investing in such an enterprise would not have hired Ethan Rayne for the task. The man loves his chaos far too much to adhere to any plan, no matter how 'motivated' he might've been by his employer."

"Whatever the cause, whoever might or might not be behind this, there is one fact that is undisputable: this will drastically affect our plans," the European Head stated with no room for discussion. "Even if he retains no knowledge after tonight, the mere existence of his arcane power will change things. The Watcher will almost certainly try to instruct him and that's assuming no other practitioner deduces enough to seek out Harris themselves. Even if the teenager manages to stay under the radar, the existence of a third House will not go unnoticed, especially if it contains anything of value."

"What do you propose?" the North American leader asked, sounding willing to let things go a bit further.

"Elimination of all anomalies under the emergency exception protocols," E.H. replied, resolve in every word. "The mortals need not be aware of it. It can be passed off as an unfortunate side effect of chaos magic. Such things do happen, after all."

For a time impossible to define nothing was said as the other two considered the course of action both on its merits and on its possible flaws. The emergency exception protocols were a safety measure against surprises that threatened the entire tapestry of the mortal realm but were only to be used when the standing orders of the Almighty stood in the way of saving it. In all the time of existence since it had been created, the protocols had only been utilized a handful of times and only as much as was needed in order to resolve the crisis. To invoke it now, to resolve the growing problem of Alexander Harris, was no easy thing to do and could not be made hastily.

"No," the Asian head said, breaking the silence.

"No," the North American head declared. "While the situation does warrant action, I do not believe it requires such severe action."

"You cannot be serious. We all know the damage that a single user of magic with this sort of power can cause," E.H. said, confused at how the other two could deny the necessity of emergency action. "The others are kept in check by the traditions, the dogma and the environments they were raised in. Harris only became aware of the supernatural a year and a half ago. If he is allowed to live with this amount of power unfettered, there's no telling the chaos he could create that would disrupt our plans."

"Indeed. If he is left to his own devices that is the likely outcome," N.A. said, conceding that point at least.

"But what if we didn't leave him to his own devices?" the Asian leader asked, sounding to be of a similar train of thought. "What if instead we send him a teacher? What if he is taught the ways of sorcery from the beginning? He could prove to be quite the asset."

"And this teacher would carefully plant ideas into his head that would bring him around to our way of thinking?" E.H. asked rhetorically as understanding began to take hold. "An intriguing idea to be sure but what about the likes of Richard Wilkins or Wolfram & Hart? They will sense his growing might and, if he fails to be swayed by their respective 'offers', they will almost certainly try to eliminate him."

"The latter can be kept in bay with a bit of pressure put on them and the former can be resolved as well," the Asian Leader said, not sounding concerned. "It is quite likely that whomever Harris is being transformed into will be skilled in the use of magic and the artifacts he wears. If pointed in the right direction, say city hall, the problem a year and a half into our future will be resolved for us."

"Assuming that whomever he turns into is skilled enough to defeat Wilkins," E.H. said, pointing out a wrinkle in the idea. "The warlock has managed to come to within a year of accomplishing what few have and without any mortal based practitioner being the wiser."

"Then let us see how the dice rolls," N.A. said, taking on a contemplative tone. "Allow the transformation to finish, nudge him towards Wilkins and then allow the fight to ensue. If he's the asset we wish him to be, he will succeed and our plans for him can proceed in earnest. If not… then he will be eliminated as you originally desired and we can see about getting the new House a suitable caretaker. Assuming it doesn't choose one of its own."

"Very well. Let's hope that we do not all come to regret this," N.H. said, nodding in agreement and giving his consent to the plan.

 _ **Streets of Sunnydale**_

"By Hoggoth! What has happened?" he asked as the chaos within his mind faded away to the ordered structure he'd mastered early in his training.

The last thing he remembered he was teleporting away from his secret meeting with Stark, Richards and the others regarding the Superhuman Registration Act. He'd been disgusted with the concept and warned that it would lead to heroes fighting each other to the death for what they believed to be right. After telling the two main supporters never to call on him again, he'd cast the teleportation spell only to wind up… wherever he was.

Almost immediately he sensed the overwhelming evil surrounding him, soaked into both the air and the ground, and almost instinctively raised his mental protections. While not as overwhelming as some of the more infernal dimensions he'd visited during the course of his career as Sorcerer Supreme, it was still potent enough to warrant serious caution.

Once he was sure that he would not be influenced either by the place or the beings inhabited it, he set to work attempting to see if more than just his location had changed. With how chaotic his mind had been moments ago, there was no way of knowing just how much time had passed. Anything could've been done to him and it would be careless to take any sort of action without first making sure that he was himself.

"By the Light of the All-Seeing Eye of Agamotto! Reveal to me that which is but should not be!" he intoned, framing the talisman with his fingers.

With the sound of moving metal, the arcane metal that made up the eye retracted unleashing the light within and revealing a human-like eye. However, as he knew all too well, the amulet was in fact crafted by one of the Vishantis and therefore was not crafted with human beings in mind. Regardless, it possessed great power and with it he examined himself for any signs of tampering whether it was physical, mental or spiritual. What he found surprised him because not only was he not in his own body but the Eye revealed that another soul was cohabitating his current vessel, though suppressed by what appeared to be the same magic that had brought him to this place. Was this a forced summoning? It would have taken someone of skill and power to take him so unawares.

What worried him though was the fact that the Eye was having little if any effect on the magic that was keeping him in a body that definitely wasn't his. Normally using it dispersed an enemy's spell upon contact, with only the most powerful ones requiring prolonged exposure to defeat. However, based on what he could see, while there was a reaction it was more akin to a flame being excited by a gentle breeze.

 _Odd,_ he thought as he released the energy for the spell allowing the eye to close. _Perhaps in investigating this town I will learn why I was brought here and who may send me back._

"Xander… how… how did you do that?" a voice asked from behind him, causing him to turn around.

Standing a few feet away was a red haired girl dressed like some of the call girls he occasionally saw on the streets of New York. However, unlike those women, this teenage girl clearly was not used to wearing clothes she had on, indicating she'd only chosen to wear them recently. Regardless, he didn't know her and it would likely be best to correct any misunderstandings so that he could focus on matter of his being brought there.

"While I may be inhabiting Xander's body at the moment, young lady, I am not him," he replied, being polite yet honest. "My name is Stephen Strange."

"On, no! Not you, too!" the girl groaned, clearly not pleased by the turn of events.

"This has happened to others?" he asked, perceiving a potential source of information.

"Yeah. For some reason everyone's turning into their costumes," the girl replied, sounding unsettled by some of the things she saw. "Kids I was chaperoning had monster masks on them then all of a sudden they were monsters."

"A spell that makes people into that which they wish they were. A personification of 'be careful what you wish for'," he said as he considered the variables for such a spell.

Considering his current predicament and what the girl had said, it was likely that the costumes the people wore were the method by which the power was channeled. However, when he tried to determine what the purpose to such a spell could be, he fell short. Turning children into monsters would hardly prove useful unless they were of a breed that were deadly even in their early years, but most costumes were not specific when it came to monsters. Different colored skin, fangs and horns were the most common attributes, but having seen some examples in New York he knew that no costume manufacturer knew a thing about true demons and monsters. Add to that the fact that most children who went trick or treating dressed either as superheroes or ordinary people and any goal with ill intent would be thwarted.

A miscalculation, perhaps?

"AAAHHH!" came a scream of fright bringing him out of his thoughts.

"That's Buffy! We have to help her!" the girl said, sounding distinctly worried.

"Lead the way," he said as he ran after the girl, hoping that they would arrive in time to prevent injury or loss of life.

It didn't take them long to find 'Buffy' but when they did he had to wonder if she was in any real danger save from herself. Dressed in clothes at least two centuries old, the brunette girl hid behind a tree as the sole calmly running car sped by.

"A demon! A demon!" Buffy cried out, clearly frightened out of her mind.

"Buffy, are you alright?" the girl asked, not picking up on her friend's behavior. "Things have gotten really crazy here! People are turning into their costumes! What should we do?"

Unfortunately the fear looked to be too much for the brunette since she fainted less than two seconds later as her mind likely was unable to cope with her new situation.

"She couldn't have dressed up as Xena?" the girl asked with some exasperation.

"I take it she's not normally like this?" he asked just to be certain of his deductive reasoning.

"No. She's the Slayer," the girl replied, shaking her head. "She's part of this ancient bloodline of demon killers."

"Then perhaps one of her kin might be able to help us?" he suggested, thinking that such a skilled warrior could prove very helpful indeed.

"Not going to happen. There's only ever one Slayer at a time. When one dies, the next gets Called to replace her," the girl replied, revealing what she knew.

 _A possible spell of reincarnation? Or perhaps merely a mystical force that seeks out a new host?_ he thought, his mind unable to keep from proposing possible explanations. _Still, no matter how impressive the girl might be, it does little good if she does not remember who she is._

Hearing growls that didn't belong to any animal he knew of, he did not think it would be wise for the three of them to remain on the streets. While normally he would have little trouble defending such a small group from all but the most serious threats, these were not normal circumstances. So long as he was inhabiting another's body, he could not risk exposing it unnecessary danger, especially since he didn't know the full extent of the power he had to work with. Even if this were a case of his astral form being in another's body, he would still be relying on the innate magic of his host body.

It was an unknown variable and not one he would like to test given present circumstances.

"We should get off the streets until we are better able to determine a course of action," he suggested even as he kept his eyes trained on the direction the growls were coming from.

"Buffy's place is this way! Follow me!" the girl said as she turned to run.

Scooping up Buffy in his arms, he followed the redhead but almost lost his stride when he watched her pass right through a parked car as though she were naught but a ghost. Phasing through matter was not an unfamiliar feat for him to either perform or witness but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what sort of costume the girl could've worn to gain such the ability.

It was a few minutes later that they arrived at a quaint two story home and, walking up the step, he watched the girl who was his guide phase right through the door before coming back out.

"Oops! I forgot you can't get through without the key," the girl said before casting her gaze to a flower pot close to the door. "Missus Summers' spare key should be under that pot."

For a moment he considered putting 'Buffy' down and getting they key but then he decided that would take too much time, so he decided to test his host body's magic capacity by performing simple levitation. Depending on how much effort he had to exert he would gain a better understanding of what his temporary limits would be and then act accordingly. Following the steps as he'd been taught by the Ancient One so long ago, he was pleased to find out that it only took a little more effort than he recalled in order to raise the flower pot off the ground. Then, with a little deft manipulation, he picked up the key revealed to be beneath before setting the pot back on the deck, before calling the key to his open hand.

While by no means a sign that he could safely perform some of his more advanced spells, it did mean that he could make further attempts with spells only somewhat stronger than levitation.

With the turn of the key and then the turn of the doorknob he entered the house to find much what he'd come to expect from visiting the houses of other middle class family homes; pictures of family and of friends in a variety of different settings forever preserving a happy moment for future reminiscing. He could see quite a few examples to support the fact that "Buffy' did not normally act like someone who was afraid of their own shadow. Indeed, she looked like many of the teenage girls he'd seen walking down the street outside the Sanctum Sanctorum. Still, a drastic alteration of memory and personality was not too worrisome, especially since he figured it was only temporary.

Then he passed by a mirror and got a good look at his reflection.

 _By the Vishanti!_ _How can this be?_

As soon as he'd learned that he was not in his own body but rather the body of someone who'd dressed up to look like him, he'd been prepared to look in a reflective surface and see an unfamiliar face. However the face he now beheld was not as different from the one he'd seen in the mirror all his life as he'd been expecting. Indeed he could spot several facial features that he'd been told as a child was common to the Strange bloodline, making him wonder who precisely he was possessing.

"Is something wrong?" the girl asked, having noticed his sudden stop.

"If I might ask, young lady… just what is the name of the person whose body I inhabit?" he asked, hoping that with that piece of information he could come up with an explanation.

"His name's Xander Harris. He's my best friend," the girl replied innocently, not seeing the harm of it.

"Xander… I presume that name is short for Alexander?" he asked in order to gain a better understanding of the name.

A nod confirmed it.

Alexander Harris.

It was not a name he knew but then he was not an avid researcher of the Strange family tree, so it was possible that he was in fact inhabiting the body of a distant relation.

An odd coincidence if coincidence it truly was.

Laying Buffy on the nearby couch, he spotted a picture of the three of them standing on a nearby table. Alexander Harris, Buffy and the girl who'd guided them to this place of sanctuary. They appeared to be good friends and, if Buffy was truly some sort of chosen warrior, then Alexander and the girl had to be VERY good friends. Most people, when confronted with the darker aspects of the world, could not handle it and retreated back to what they considered 'normal' since with it came comprehension and control. To not turn away but rather aid in the combatting evil spoke of much bravery and friendship.

"AAAHHH!" came a scream from outside the house.

"That's Cordelia! We have to help her!" the girl said, rushing to the window to look outside.

Given that the redhead was intangible and Buffy was unconscious, that left only him to go to 'Cordelia's' rescue. Briskly walking towards the door, he opened it and beheld an odd sight if ever there was one. Running down the street as swiftly as she could was a brunette woman in a spotted skintight bodysuit and pursuing her was something that sort of reminded him of the Alpha Flight member Sasquatch. However the feral behavior and the lack of humanity it exhibited had him thinking that, if someone had dressed up as the hero, they'd gotten the something wrong.

Raising both his hands, he grasped the hairy giant magically with his left hand while his right gently lifted the fleeing girl off the ground. One he sent flying into some bushes while the other he brought to the door of the house as swiftly as he could without adding to her fear.

"Don't worry. You're safe now," he said as he gestured for her to enter the house.

"Yeah, thanks to you! Imagine my surprise, dweeb!" the girl snapped as she strode into the house.

 _Reminds me of some of the more entitled young ladies I encountered at hospital fundraising events,_ he thought dryly as he followed her in and closed the door behind him. _Beautiful to be certain but with personalities that could peel paint._

"Okay, your name is Cordelia, you're not a cat, you're in high school, and we're your friends. Well, sort of," the girl said, no doubt under the assumption that like him the cat-girl didn't remember who she truly was.

"That's nice, Willow. And you went mental when?" Cordelia asked with the same attitude as before.

"You know us?" Willow asked, surprised at this fact.

"Yeah. Lucky me. What's with the name game?" Cordelia asked, sounding irritated and impatient.

"A lot's going on," Willow said as she tried to figure out her next move.

"No kidding. I was just attacked by Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy. Look at my costume!" Cordelia replied, pointing at a particularly large tear. "Do you really think that Partytown's gonna give me my deposit back? Not on the likely."

"Okay. You guys stay here while I get some help. If something tries to get in, just fight it off," Willow said as she began to walk towards a wall.

"You are expecting trouble?" he asked, wanting to know what else besides the odd transformed trick or treater could threaten them.

"This is Sunnydale. It's on top of a Hellmouth," Willow replied as she got closer to the wall. "Always expect trouble."

With that the girl passed through the wall, vanishing from sight, leaving just him, Cordelia and the still unconscious Buffy in the room.

"Who died and made her the boss?" Cordelia asked, sounding affronted that someone would order her around.

"Hopefully no one. For the time being, though, I believe we should follow her instructions," he replied, facing the young woman. "With her present intangibility she is impossible to harm and seems to have a better grasp of the situation than either of us."

"Figures you'd side with her," Cordelia said dismissively. "She's probably the only reason you haven't repeated the first grade ten times."

This was not going to be one of his more pleasant adventures.

 _ **A Higher Plane**_

"This is not good enough," E.H. said as they viewed events proceeding much as they had in their various precognitive visions.

"I agree. The costume's personality is being too cautious with his power," the Asian leader said with dissatisfaction. "We will never see his true potential unless he gets serious."

"Don't worry. A moment is upon us that will give us the opening we require," N.A. Leader said, not sounding as worried as the other two.

Taking a closer look at the images being displayed, the two malcontents quickly realized what was about to happen. In the less worrisome paths the future took, the exposure of their champion Angel's vampiric nature frightens the noblewoman Slayer Summers had dressed up as into fleeing her house. In most cases this would lead the trio of Harris, Angel and Chase to leave in search of her before the chaos of the night caused her to be harmed or even killed. However, with a slight nudge from the three of them, the three could be convinced to split up in the interests of covering more ground, though it was likely that the Chase girl would refuse to be parted from the best source of protection. They could nudge things to make sure she'd choose Angel, giving the possessed Alexander Harris the opening needed to truly test his mettle.

"Indeed it would indeed be an opportune moment," the Asian leader said, considering the possibility. "The question would be how to lure him into the desired confrontation."

"An illusion. He will be searching for Slayer Summers with his eyes," E.H. said, producing a realistic hologram of the defiant Chosen One. "We place a hologram like this in just the right spot and then lead him on a merry chase to city hall. Once he's close enough Wilkins will sense his magic and be compelled to make his presence known. From there all it will take will be the mayor's lack of soul and dark magic to provoke a reaction."

"An interesting course of action and with a little care we might even arrange for William the Bloody to put in an appearance," the Asian Leader said, adding support to the plan.

"Hey! No reason to go that far!" N.A. leader said in opposition to the last part. "Wilkins' desire for Ascension is a dire threat that needs to be countered but William the Bloody is not. He likes things as they are. Besides which, if Slayer Summers continues to defy her Calling he will be a useful method of eliminating her so that a more compliant Slayer can be brought into the war."

"Point," the Asian Leader said, conceding that involving Spike would be a tad greedy.

"With the plan made let us wait for the opportunity to arrive so that we may enact it," the Asian Leader said with a tone of finality.

 _ **The Skies Above Sunnydale, Stephen Strange's POV**_

 _I hope Angel and Cordelia are okay,_ he thought as he flew over the town with his functional cloak of levitation.

He had been wary of splitting up but could not fault the concept of covering more ground.

Still he found it disturbing that some ancient spell caster would perform a curse so horrendous that it would tear a soul from heaven only to bond it with a vampire's body. While he had no love for the hellish creatures, if a soul was good enough that it had earned its place in the divine hereafter it was a crime and a sin to rip it away from its final rest. He'd been strongly tempted to simply slay the vampire right there, if only to free the human soul within from its damned living death. Only due to the numerous unknowns he found himself surrounded with did he stay his hand but, once Buffy was found and the spell that brought him there was canceled, he would be back.

 _Where are you, Buffy?_ he thought as he continued to fly over the chaotic town of Sunnydale.

Seeing such chaos and danger, the only thing that kept him from getting distracted was the fact that a large amount of those who had been changed by the spell that'd brought him here had dressed as heroes. None he recognized but all of them were working hard to protect those unable to protect themselves, making his required intervention minimal. Nevertheless he knew from experience that, unless they had a divine element to them, all heroes were capable of feeling the effects of exhaustion. If the chaos was not brought to an end quickly enough, fatigue would breed mistakes and in the hero game mistakes cost lives.

A flicker of rapid movement caught his eye and he focused that it was Buffy running for her life, though from what he could tell with no destination in mind. The revelation of Angel's true nature must've been truly frightening to her seventeenth century mentality but all she was doing was ensuring that she would be caught by surprise. Descending towards her, he found his direct line of sight blocked as she turned into an alleyway, so he picked up his pace in order to catch up to her so that he could calm her down. Entering the alley, he only laid eyes on her again in time to see her turn another corner, implying superhuman speed and lending credence to her supernatural title. More to the point, with the narrowness of the alleyway, he was forced to slow down in order to make the turns successfully, making the distance between him and Buffy grow faster than he'd like.

 _I need to get ahead of her,_ he thought as he rose back into the sky to allow more freedom of movement and consistent speed.

Using the last point of visual contact as a clue he soon reacquired her and immediately flew as swiftly as he could to overtake her so he could put an end to the chase. However this quickly proved futile since, while he was capable of reaching twenty-five miles per hour with the Cloak of Levitation, Buffy proved capable of capable of running much faster. Nevertheless he would maintain pursuit and hope that she found someplace she felt safe so he could convince her it was safer to remain with the group then being alone.

It was a few minutes later that he watched her go up the steps to what looked to be the town's city hall but then something happened that he hadn't anticipated.

She vanished in a twinkling of light very reminiscent of some teleportation spells that he knew but that made little sense. Aside from the superhuman speed, he had not witnessed any magic potential, so it was unlikely that she had performed the spell. That meant that something or someone in the city hall was responsible but it did not necessarily imply malicious intent. Nevertheless he needed to get Buffy back or at least ensure that she would be safe in city hall so that he could begin looking for the source of the costume tied spell. Landing in front of the doors, he reached out but, before his hand could make contact, dark magic leapt up to block him and threaten him with a sizeable arcane shock.

"Warded and by magic Mordo would likely employ," he said as he began to look for clues as to the nature of the spell. "That does not bode well for Buffy."

"Well, that's a bit hurtful. I assure you that city hall is completely safe should any citizen of Sunnydale choose to pay a visit," a voice said behind him, causing him to spin around. "Of course that's only during official business hours and with an appointment. It's only polite, after all.

Standing a dozen feet from the bottom of the steps was a man clad in an unremarkable suit, looking to be in his late forties to early fifties with a smile that instantly bred mistrust. He'd seen smiles like that on some of the more cunning and amoral beings during his career as Sorcerer Supreme, with none of them putting him at ease. It usually meant that either the being was supremely confident of their position or were more than a little unstable.

"Then am I to presume that you didn't just teleport a young woman into the building when she approached it?" he asked, deciding to judge the man's threat level by how he answered.

"Gosh no! To my knowledge Miss Summers is currently in the warehouse district, so whoever or whatever you saw was likely an illusion meant to lure you here," the man replied, sounding both amused and surprised. "I have to admit I'm a bit surprised that you didn't notice but then, since you are merely Mister Harris dressed up as a sorcerer, you don't have the experience to know better."

"Then I shall take my leave since there is nothing here I desire," he said, deciding that his efforts would be better put to use elsewhere.

However, before he could rise a few feet off of the ground, a small bolt of energy shot past his head, causing him to stop immediately.

"Leaving so soon? I was enjoying quite the relaxing evening at home when my wards notified me of your approach, forcing me to rush right over," the man said, some residual energy crackling around his finger. "I'm afraid I'm going to need a measure of compensation for your rude interruption."

"What would you propose?" he asked, hoping it was something simple.

"If you were to turn over to me your amulet and cape I would be willing to let this interruption fade into memory. My wards indicate they possess a great deal of power but defy classification," the man said, his creepy smile never leaving his face.

"I'm afraid that the Cloak of Levitation and the Eye of Agamotto are two items that are not available for use as compensation," he said, preparing for a possible attempt to take the item from him by force.

"I'm afraid I must insist," the man said as energy began crackling around his hands.

Lashing out with his telekinesis, he hoped to put a quick end to the fight by throwing the obvious warlock into something solid enough to knock him out. However, when he tried to gain a grip on the man, the telekinetic energy lost all solidity, making getting ahold of anything impossible. The man only smiled more sinisterly at this, proving that he was aware of what'd been attempted and what he'd consciously countered.

 _I guess it was too much to expect that I could end things so swiftly,_ he thought as he brought his hands up into the correct position. _Forgive me, Alexander, but I fear the time has come for me to take a chance._

"If telekinesis does not work against you then perhaps this will," he said before drawing on what magic lay within. "I summon the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to bind you and your magic!"

With crimson energy circular bands energy popped into existence around the warlock before contracting and pinning the man's arms and legs together. While the spell would not last long past his departure, it would hopefully enable him to regroup with the others and then terminate the spell that brought him here. Once that happened he imagined that the components of the costume Alexander wore would return to being powerless props, eliminating the city hall employee's need to acquire them. However, when the man began to chant in a guttural dialect he did not recognize, he was shocked to see the bands begin to crack little by little. Drawing on more power he tried to repair the damage but he was not swift enough and they shattered, releasing his opponent.

"An interesting spell and quite impressive. I'm surprised that Janus is pouring so much of his power into this little chaos spell," the man said as he made a show of straightening his suit. "Still, it means that this might just be fun after all. Let's see how you handle THIS!"

With that the man executed a quick chant before slapping his right hand to the stone walkway but this was only the prelude as multiple tendrils were formed from the stone. All at once they surged towards him and he took to the air to evade them on the off chance that their reach was proportional to the amount of mass they had to work with. Sadly either the stone walkway went further underground than it appeared to or the tendrils were drawing their mass from someplace else. They followed him through the air but a glance at his foe made it clear that he was directing the tendrils rather than them acting on their own initiative.

That was their weakness.

"The Flames of the Faltine will split your attention!" he fired as arcane circles manifested in front of his hands before crimson flames flew towards the warlock.

The warlock quickly ceased his manipulation of the tendrils in order to erect an arcane barrier but that is what he'd desired in the first place. True, he could simply keep up the bombardment of flames until the warlock could keep his barrier up no more but, without knowing Alexander's limits, that was a dangerous gambit. He needed to end the fight swiftly before his limited reserves became known to the warlock and so went with his next move.

"If the Flames of the Faltine are too hot for you, perhaps this will be more to your taste!" he declared, ending his barrage and changing the configuration of his fingers. "Let me cool you down with The Icy Tendrils of Ikthalon!"

Just as he'd predicted the dome that protected the warlock only extended from the ground up and so to circumvent this he ensured that the blue circle of the Faltine manifested just beneath his feet. Tentacles of living ice broke through the thin layer of stone that hid their origin point before wrapping around his foe from head to toe, generating ice to encapsulate the man. In a matter of seconds the ice was thick enough that no normal human would be able to break it using physical strength. He personally hoped that with the warlock immobilized from head to toe he would be unable to chant or use hand gestures to cast a spell to shatter the solidified water.

When an infernal light began to escape from the warlock's eyes, he stretched out with his mystic senses and what he felt had him rushing to add another layer of ice to the existing frigid.

It was too late; the warlock yelled and he let loose a wave of infernal energy that shattered his icy prison sending fragments everywhere.

It was in the seconds immediately afterwards that he saw distortions in the man's face and unmistakably inhuman eyes in his sockets. It didn't last for more than a few seconds but it did make one thing clear to him. Any magic that resulted in physically distorting the human form was potent indeed and often came with a terrible cost to the user. The fact that the anomalies were only temporary before the completely human appearance reasserted itself implied that either the warlock had a glamor present to keep the cost of his power hidden or he had some control over the infernal energy.

Control that slipped a little whenever the warlock was forced to strongly exert himself as he just did to break free of his icy prison

"Well now! I have to say that this is proving to be far more entertaining than I'd originally anticipated. It's been so long since I've been forced to get serious," the warlock said with his pleasant veneer only partially intact. "Unfortunately for you I have home field advantage!"

With that the warlock began chanting once more but it did not end as swiftly as it had the first time as he began to see growing spots of distortion on the walkway, on the grass, the fountain and even city hall itself. The purpose of these distortions became clear when appendages emerged from the distortions only to grasp the ground beyond the edges. Thenm with all the speed of a recent awakener, the limbs pulled the bodies they were attached to out of the distortions to reveal monsters of great horror and, he suspected, power. So unnatural were they that he could not make any comparisons between what he saw and any animal known to mankind. All he could say for certain was that all of them had the necessary teeth and claws to rend flesh with horrifying lethality.

"You see, over the years there have been many who have come to my town and tried to cause trouble. Now, most of them I simply kill and dispose of the bodies… those that don't rapidly decay on their own that at least," the warlock said as the four creatures emerged from the distortions. "However there are a few who proved to be a challenge for me, much like you have, and so I saw the wisdom of 'recruiting' them into my employ. Most of the time they're sealed away, held in stasis where they cannot discern the passage of time and only released under very special circumstances. In truth I had intended to keep them sealed away until next year when I would drain them of any valuable energy they possessed before proceeding to my lifetime objective. Now… now I guess letting them have one last bit of fun before taking them for all that they're worth would be the least courtesy I could do them."

When the four creatures finally left the distortions they all turned their gazes towards him.

And then they moved.

The first one lashed out, limbs possessing numerous articulation points, allowing it to instantly change course to follow him as he tried to evade it. No matter which direction he went the multiple points of articulation allowing the clawed hand to follow him without losing momentum. When a human tried to reach out to grab something but missed they often drew back their hand in order to try again but with this creature that wasn't necessary.

The second one made its abilities known when it vanished and suddenly he felt a presence behind him.

Instincts honed by numerous encounters with dangerous beings, he whirled around bring both hands up.

"The Seven Rings of Raggadorr denies your attack!" he declared, blossoming into existence blue rings that surrounded him from head to toe.

A heavy fist that bespoke of much power slammed into the rings and, while it did not shatter the protective rings that surrounded him, he was not completely unaffected. The energy from the blow had to go somewhere and it did by propelling him through the air like a baseball. Despite what some might think it wasn't that he couldn't have maintained his position but rather he chose not to. The amount of energy, the amount of focus that would've been required, would have fatigued him briefly and, without knowing his current body's limits, forcing immobility might've cost him dearly. Instead, once he bounced once off the side of city hall, reducing his momentum by quite a bit, he used the Cloak of Levitation to steady himself.

Only to have a multitude of tentacles wrap around the Seven Rings from multiple angles and begin to put increasing amounts of pressure on them.

It was astounding how much power the tentacles possessed and he knew without a doubt that, if he let the Seven Rings drop, he would be crushed soon after. Putting more energy into the protective spell he began to think of an energy efficient way of freeing himself from the third monster.

Finding none he went with the quickest option.

"The Demons of Denak will free me from your grasp!" he declared as he shifted the weight of the Seven Rings to his left hand while using the right to cast the new spell.

In the space of seconds the monster holding him was shredding to pieces by an unseen force, leaving a tableau more at home in a horror movie surrounding him. For a moment he thought that he had managed to gain some breathing room but then he was reminded that there had been four monsters released from the distortions, not three. Looking about he was only able to lay eyes on the fourth monster before it released a torrent of black flame at him, instinctively causing him to focus on maintaining the Seven Rings. It seemed to work at first but, when his eyes spied bits of the Rings being chipped away by the new attack, he was shocked that such a thing was possible. The spell drew upon the power of a god to perform its effects and only the most powerful or most skilled of sorcerers should've been able to damage it.

"Interesting ability Babel has, isn't it? I certainly thought so when he tried to usurp my dominance over the Hellmouth twenty years ago," the warlock said, sounding quite pleased. "His flames have the special ability to break down any magical spell they come into contact with, including yours, it seems. Still, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself since your blue rings are proving to be harder than most to destroy."

Knowing he needed time to regroup, he called upon his magic to render himself intangible before dropping into the ground below just as the Seven Rings spell was destroyed. Flying untouchable through the dirt, he tried to discern how he could finish this quicker because he was almost certain he was approaching the arcane limits of his host body's power. By his deductions Alexander was not a trained wizard, though what he'd experienced since finding himself in Sunnydale did indicate that he did have the potential to be one. A trained sorcerer would've taken precautions against possessions and likely would've sensed something of the costume he chose the moment he laid eyes on it. While he knew of several bloodlines where the members were born with a sizeable lake of arcane energy within them, it was still small compared to those who had trained for many a year. As such it was only a matter of time before he ran out of energy and was placed at this warlock's mercy.

He needed to take the problem out at the source.

Rising back up off the ground he said, "I call upon The Vapors of Valtorr to hide me from your sight!"

With speed that could not be considered natural a dense fog faded into existence, soon making it impossible to see anything with normal organic eyes. Fortunately for him he had other methods by which he could find his foe but first he had one more thing to do if he was to claim victory.

"May The Images of Ikthalon confuse my enemies," he muttered even as he made sure to scatter duplicate images of himself about the immediate area.

While normally he did like to declare the spell he was using a bit louder, it was not strictly speaking necessary so long as he channeled the needed magic into the spell.

His distractions completed, he sent a light wave of telekinesis out that should easily be mistaken as a light breeze but would also tell him where the Warlock currently stood. Gaining that information, he used the Cloak of Levitation to circle around behind the man even as the monster Babel's flames began to eat away at the fog as well as a few of his mystic duplicates. Fortunately the blasts were focused and being fired in random directions, proving that his opponents didn't know where he was at the moment.

"You continue to impress but it's only a matter of time before Babel finds you or breaks down enough of your spell to destroy it entirely," the warlock said, confirming his position audibly.

Not wanting to risk giving away his position by landing on the ground, he brought both hands up to frame his amulet before playing his trump card.

"You are too late as I invoke the Seven Suns of Cinnibus!" he declared before an energy blast leapt from the Eye of Agamotto, striking the Warlock from behind.

With the blast being as hot as seven suns, the warlock didn't last even a second before he was reduced to so much ash but, when a wave of weakness overcame him, he cancelled the spell.

 _It would appear that THIS is the limit of Alexander's power,_ he thought as he cancelled the remaining spells so they no longer drained the young man. _Admirable, considering the level of power I was using._

Still, he had to be ready in case the death of their master only wound up making the remaining three monsters even MORE dangerous.

As the fog cleared and his duplicates winked out of existence, he beheld the three monsters and, if he was to compare their movements to a human, it looked as though they were waking up from something.

"What…where…?" the one with the multiple articulated limbs asked as it looked around.

"Sunnydale! Yes, I was here to kill that upstart Wilkins!" the one of surprising speed and power. "Where is he!?"

"Dead, unless he is craftier than I thought," he replied, causing the attention of the three to focus on him.

"You killed Wilkins?! Ridiculous! No whelp could slay that warlock where I failed," Babel said, sounding insulted that someone would even claim such a thing.

"Then explain why you three are now free of his control. Do you really think he would've released you of his own free will after enslaving you in the first place?" he asked, hoping that, by cementing his title as the killer of this Wilkins Warlock, it'd make the three less eager to attack.

"He has a point," Multi-Elbow said, sounding to be the more discerning of the two. "Wilkins is a greedy bastard and he'd have to know we'd come after him again if we ever got free."

"You have saved us some trouble, human, and freed us from our forced servitude," the Strong and the Swift said, sounding only mildly irritated. "As such you have earned a boon from each of us as reward. What is it you wish?"

Typical.

 _Not more than five minutes free from their enslavement and already they're trying to ensnare me in an infernal trap of theirs,_ he thought keeping his incredulousness off his face. _Best keep it simple._ "The only boon I require of you three would be for all of you to leave this town peacefully and never return, even under the direst of circumstances," he replied, not wanting to chance the three getting playful and terrorizing the people of Sunnydale.

"Are you certain?" Babel asked, sounding like he'd prefer the boon to be reconsidered. "While we are not as powerful as some of the demon lords, we could give you much. Power, wealth or perhaps even telling you where you could find a means to enhance your considerable magical might."

"I am certain. There are innocents here that I wish to protect but I am not so bold so as to place such a bother on the shoulders of you three," he said, remaining polite yet firm in his decision. "Simply leaving this town be and causing it no trouble will be enough to settle the debt between us. Besides, I am sure you are eager to find out what has transpired since you were captured by Wilkins and would not delay you further."

"Very well, mortal. We three shall leave the Hellmouth never to return," Babel said, sounding disappointed that they'd been unable to ensnare their prey. "I pray you do not come to regret wasting our generosity."

With that the fire breather teleported away in a puff of flame and the others followed suit in their own unique manner until he was the only one to remain standing in front of city hall.

 _You have great potential, Alexander Harris. I wish that there was some way I could aid you in reaching it but I have duties of my own that I am obliged to attend to._ He willed the Cloak of Levitation to once more take him to the sky. _I must find the source of the spell that brought me here. With luck I will be able to break it before Buffy comes to harm. If she is truly of a special bloodline of warriors, she should be able to protect herself once the spell is broken._

He prayed that it would not be otherwise.


	2. Consequences and Future Classes

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my work. Therefore I would appreciate it if no legal action were taken against me. I can promise you that I do not have enough money or assets to make legal action worth it.

 _ **The Higher Planes of Existance**_

 _ **Chamber of the Powers That Be**_

"And thus we gain a new piece on the game board." N.A. said with satisfaction. "I will admit I was worried that this so-called Sorcerer Supreme might be a tad reckless but he handled both Wilkins and the demons well."

"Indeed. By forcing those three to adhere to the boons they freely offered, he inadvertently kept them from causing three times as much trouble as Wilkins ever did," the Asian leader said as they continued to watch their newest Champion. "More than that, since Alexander's abilities were born of chaos magic rather than anything we did, the other side can't add a piece of their own to act as a counter balance. Properly handled, we might very well be able to accelerate some of our plans a bit."

"And best of all is this," E.H. said, changing the image to a warehouse interior.

Inside stood their champion Angel, restrained by two demons, the spoiled brat Chase, likewise captured, and Slayer Summers, firmly in the grasp of William the Bloody. In most other futures they'd glimpsed at Harris' presence had delayed Spike and his forces for a few minutes more than they had this night and so, when the Watcher broke the spell, she was able to save herself.

Not so in this case.

Without the extra hand to block off the door or rescue Summers from the costumed pirate, Spike was able to get his hands on the willful girl sooner. If the member of the Scourge of Europe had the idea to bring the Slayer home to his sire alive, the California girl might have lived. Too bad William the Bloody could be somewhat unpredictable at times and it was this trait that caused him to force the teenager's neck to be bared before biting into her. For a moment it looked as though the vampire would lose himself in the euphoria of drinking Slayer blood and drain her dry but, oddly enough, he stopped just a few mouthfuls shy of killing her.

"Can't be having her die before Dru gets her meal now, can I?" Spike asked rhetorically before tearing off a strip of cloth from the Slayer's outfit and crudely bandaging the wound. "This should keep her heart ticking 'til I get back home and, with as much blood as I've drank, she won't be causing any problems one way or another."

"Is this okay?" the Asian leader asked with mild concern. "While it would be to our benefit if Slayer Summers were to die and Slayer Kendra were to be relocated to Sunnydale, letting the mad seer Drusilla rise to full strength could prove problematic."

"True. The whole reason we arranged for the incident in Prague was to minimize how much they could interfere with our plans," E.H. said with equal concern. "Perhaps we should fog the mind of Angel's captor a bit so he can escape and rescue Slayer Summers. She's lost enough blood that she's unlikely to survive even if they sprint to a hospital."

For a moment they all considered this and remembered how, with Harris' help, she'd managed to defy their prophecy and survive.

"No. We'll allow things to proceed unchanged," N.A. said, putting forth his position. "While having half of the Scourge of Europe at full strength would be a problem, it would not be impossible to overcome. Slayer Kendra is the ideal Slayer and, even if she fails to slay the two of them, the other side is usually quick to remove disruptive elements."

"Yes. Spike and Drusilla are nothing but disruptive no matter where they go," E.H. said, agreeing with what had been spoken.

As such they watched Spike turned to carry the weakened Slayer out of the warehouse he'd drained her in before giving orders to kill Angel and the Chase girl. Instantly all three of them were concerned that they might have a problem but fortunately Watcher Rupert Giles was diligent in his duties. In the blink of an eye the ghost Rosenberg and the transformed children reverted back to normal, leaving Angel decidedly unencumbered. Predictably their champion charged Spike, intent on rescuing Slayer Summers, but Angel failed to remember one important fact.

A vampire who has successfully consumed a sizeable amount of Slayer blood received a sizeable, albeit temporary, boost to power, speed and regeneration ability.

As a result with a single backhand Spike sent Angel flying back as though he were weaker than a fresh from the grave vampire.

"Wait your turn, you great poofter," Spike said in a remarkably friendly tone. "Once Dru's back on her feet we'll come pay you a visit and have a 'good old time'. Count on it."

With that it seemed that the future was set and all would go as the three of them had foreseen…

…Then out of nowhere Slayers Summers scooped up a broken piece of wood from a nearby crate and slammed it into the heart of William the Bloody.

Where she found the strength to do so none of them could say but it was apparently all she had left as the arm that did the deed fell limply to her side. Spike had just enough time to gape along with the rest of them before turning to dust, causing the unconscious or perhaps dead Slayer to fall to the warehouse floor.

"O-kay… what the hell just happened?" N.A. asked, sounding completely dumbfounded. "I mean, I know Slayers are resilient and can do a lot even when injured but THIS… this shouldn't have been possible."

"Indeed. While we weren't scrutinizing the scene as closely as we could have, she should've been drained to just shy of losing consciousness," E.H. said, sounding quite dumbfounded at what he'd just seen.

"I suppose she must have overheard what Spike had planned for her and Angel, causing her to pool all her remaining strength into one final strike," the Asian leader speculated but not with overwhelming confidence. "Whatever the case, this act almost certainly reduced the odds of her surviving the night. We will have our more compliant Slayer on the Hellmouth."

"Then with that settled I believe we should begin seeking an appropriate instructor in the mystic arts for our new champion immediately," N.A. said, eager to put the oddity aside as swiftly as possible. "We wouldn't want him to attempt to learn magic on his own and get himself killed now, would we?"

"It would be best if it was one we already have leverage on and possesses some skill for manipulation," E.H. said, sounding contemplative about the possibilities. "We would most likely have to mystically tie them to Harris so that they don't find some way to escape their position in spite of what we have on them."

Their discussion lasted long into the night but, by the time the sun rose in Sunnydale, they had their candidate and all three of them were confident in their choice.

 _ **Sunnydale Mercy Hospital, One Hour After the Janus Spell Broke, Xander's POV**_

"Willow!" he yelled as soon as he set eyes on his best friend. "Where is she?!"

"She's in the operating room," Willow replied, her eyes red from the crying she'd done earlier when she'd called him at the library.

It had been one of the scariest things he'd ever been through to suddenly wake up in mid-air because every rule he knew said he would be plummeting down to the ground within seconds. Either he'd be killed on impact with the ground or break a lot of bones, making him easy prey for any demon with a case of the munchies.

So color him surprised when he didn't drop to the ground but rather began to haphazardly flit about like a chicken with its head cut off. It took a full five minutes before he considered the possibility that the cause of his random flying was due to his flailing about and chaotic mental state. Once he chose to go with that theory, he did his best to calm down before willing himself to descend to the solid and safe street below at a speed that wouldn't get him hurt. It was a bit of good luck that came his way when whatever was enabling him to fly obeyed his will but he didn't let such thoughts linger in his head since he knew it'd only trigger a reversal of luck.

As soon as he touched down he began to make his way as swiftly as he could back to the school since, without knowing where the others were, his only hope was to go where he figured they'd be eventually. His head had been on a steady swivel the entire way as he kept an eye out both for trouble as well as for any kids that might've gotten scattered when all the Hellmouthiness began. He only got a handful and not all of them were from the group he'd been assigned but he considered it a miracle that he'd found any of them from the chaos he could hear reverberating in the Sunnydale air. Once the kids were back with their parents he'd immediately gone to the library to find Giles and wait for the others to show up. He'd waited a full twenty minutes before the library phone had rung and he'd picked up, only to hear a distraught Willow on the other end. Naturally he'd asked what was bothering her but all he'd been able to make out amidst the emotional babble talking was that Buffy had been seriously hurt and was at Mercy Hospital.

He'd told her that he was on his way and immediately hung up the phone before sprinting for the hospital as quickly as he could.

"What happened?" he asked, wanting to know which demon or vamp had gone against tradition to hurt his hero.

Even with the sexy dance she'd used him for at the beginning of the year he still considered her to be the closest thing to a true superhero that he was ever likely to meet. Sure, the world had more impressive heroes like those in the Justice League, but none of them had come to Sunnydale since their team had been formed and Buffy was the only one actually doing anything. So to find out that she was hurt bad enough to need a trip to the hospital both made him angry and afraid. No matter who or what was responsible, no one hurt one of his friends without earning them a place on his kill list. At the same time, though, anyone capable of hurting Buffy might just be a BIT outside of his weight class, but he was going to operate on the assumption that the demon or vamp got lucky somehow.

"I-it was when the spell was still working. Everyone got turned into their costumes! They didn't know who they really were!" Willow replied, her emotions spiking at the important parts. "I was coming back from letting Giles know what was going on when I saw Spike going after Buffy, Angel and Cordelia. We tried to run! We tried to hide! He cornered us in a warehouse and had the minions he'd recruited hold us while he fed off Buffy!"

With the news that everyone had been turned into their costumes it explained perfectly why Spike had managed to dine on some grade A Buffy. While he wasn't the history geek that Giles was, he did know that women of the era where the Slayer's dress was common were notoriously helpless outside of the home and fainted at the drop of a hat. Every moment that a person like that remained alive atop the Hellmouth was a complete and utter miracle. If Buffy had been as ignorant of what her body had been up to as he'd been with his, then she'd have been completely helpless before Spike.

"Then he's a dusted vamp walking," he declared with cold certainty.

"More like dusted vamp now," Willow said with finality. "I don't know how she managed it but Buffy used the last shred of strength she had to stake him."

Well, at least that was something.

"Did you call Giles?" he asked, figuring that they could probably use an adult here who was in the know just in case.

"I called his apartment after getting through to you at the library but there was no answer," she replied quietly, sounding down at the fact. "I was going to try again in a couple of minutes."

"Do that. If word gets out that Buffy's helpless, demons are going to come in here looking to add another kill to their reps," he said as he looked for places where they could defend from. "We're going to need all the help we can get to send them packing."

A nod of agreement was what he got from Willow but that got tossed out the window with who he spotted walking through the automatic doors, looking significantly upset.

Joyce Summers.

"Willow! Xander!" Joyce said, homing in on the two of them. "Where's Buffy? What happened? Is she okay!?"

"In that order she's in the operating room, we got attacked escorting the trick or treaters and we don't know," Willow answered automatically, though with a bit of instability in her tone. "They haven't come out to tell us anything yet."

"Well I hope the police catch whoever's responsible because I won't be happy unless they're put behind bars for LIFE!" Joyce declared with a fury that made him glad he wasn't Spike at the moment.

If the vamp hadn't been dusted and remembered how good Missus S was with an axe and saw the look on the older woman's face, he would be wondering if being the Slayer was genetic.

Too bad Joyce didn't realize that life for humans wasn't the same for vampires. For humans it'd be unbearable to think of being stuck behind bars for the rest of their lives, being forced to adhere to the schedule there. For a vamp a century or two would be a pain but, so long as they got a regular supply of blood to drink, they could outlast their jailers completely. Then of course there was the fact that, unless they put Spike in solitary confinement, with the cell being strong enough to stand up to master vampire strength, it'd be a case of putting a wolf in the hen house. All those prisoners within arm's reach would be like surrounding the vamp with an all he could eat buffet, to say nothing of potential minions he could turn. Sure, it'd be hard to find a secluded spot to store the bodies until they rose as the newly undead but Spike was smart enough to manage it.

Sitting down in the chairs in the reception area, they each did their best to distract each other from their worry but also time kept an eye out for any doctor or nurse that looked to be approaching them. Willow went off a few minutes after Buffy's mom arrived to call Giles and thankfully got through to him at his apartment. The Watcher said he'd be at the hospital as soon as he could but, considering the clunker of a car the Brit had, it'd be a while before he passed through the door. Even if that was the case, though, he'd get here and hopefully have ideas for how to keep Buffy safe until she got her strength back. It'd probably mean warding her room against hostile intent would be necessary, to say nothing of making sure at least one of them was with her at all times.

It was five minutes later that he heard the familiar sounds of struggle that could only come from the engine of the Watcher's so-called classic car. He was about to say he'd go guide Giles to them when his eyes spotted a doctor in a white coat heading towards them and instantly he was sure that it was to inform them on Buffy's status. Freezing so that he wouldn't miss anything, he waited.

"Missus Summers?" the doctor asked Joyce to confirm who she was.

"Yes. How's my daughter? Is she okay?!" Joyce asked, her worry and concern thick in her voice.

"Your daughter was brought in by her friend a little under an hour ago and immediately rushed into the operating room. While the blood loss she suffered from the neck wound was significant, it was simple enough to sew up and bandage," the doctor replied, doing a remarkable job of keeping his emotions from showing one way or another. "However to ensure there were no other lingering issues from the attack we performed an MRI scan to be sure that there were no additional injuries. Miss Rosenberg did mention that your daughter had hit her head on the sidewalk when her attacker released her."

"And what did you find?" Missus Summers asked, her emotions going from relieved to worried in the space of a few seconds.

"I'm afraid your daughter has slipped into a coma," the doctor replied, true regret in his voice. "We're still in the process of determining how deep a coma it is but thus far her response to stimuli is… troubling."

Collectively those who cared for Buffy felt their hearts drop to somewhere around the bottom of their stomachs as they recalled all the fictional depictions of coma victims. True, Missus Summers probably had a more factual image of what comas were like but that didn't mean that that her current emotional state was any better that the rest of theirs. The doctor led her off to deal with the paperwork and discuss the recommended treatments that could be attempted in order to wake her up but the rest of them were left with a different set of problems.

"So what happens now?" he asked even though he had a few ideas of his own. "With Buffy out of action, things are going to heat up here on the Hellmouth."

"Normally when a Slayer is incapable of doing her duty, the Council usually contacts one of the specialists they have on retainer to act as a temporary stop gap measure until she's recovered," Giles replied, sounding like he had more than a little on his mind. "Given the recuperative abilities of a Slayer, it usually doesn't last for more than a few months."

"Usually?" Willow asked, her academic mind still functioning somewhat.

"The duration of their stay is equal to the time required for a Slayer to return to full combat readiness. Depending on what malady is keeping her from performing her duties, it could be anywhere from a few months to a year," Giles replied, cleaning his glasses no doubt to calm himself a bit.

"Well I guess that's… okay," Willow said, sounding a little unsure about how she felt about an outsider coming in to fight the good fight.

He understood how she felt since, if it was someone picked by the Council, there was no way of knowing how things would change. Would the newbie be like Giles and willing to let him and Willow help out with the slayage or would they stick to the party line of 'stay out of it, this is Council business' and block every attempt at the Scoobies helping out? Whoever the Council sent might be willing to accept G-Man's help but, as for him and Willow… yeah they'd be 'politely' told to butt out and mind their own business.

 _Best not to waste time worrying about what might be,_ he thought looking at Missus Summers. _We got enough troubles with what is._

 _ **Higher Plane, Two Days Later by Mortal Reckoning**_

"Are we certain that she is the right choice for instructor?" N.A. Leader asked, looking at the image of the instructor their rigorous debate had whittled the list down to. "Her loyalties have been… fickle… based on what we were able to learn about her past."

"Perhaps, but the one thing you can say about her without question is that she always sides with whichever party benefits her the most," the Asian Leader pointed out as the relevant scenes played out before them. "So long as we stack the deck in our favor, she'll have no choice but to do as we ask."

"True. Let's bring her in," E.H. said before a mass of light blossomed into existence ten feet in front of them before vanishing to reveal their selection.

A tall woman in either her late twenties or early thirties appeared apparently human right up until one noticed her pale eyes and purple hair. Clad in a dress that'd obviously been designed to accentuate her alluring figure, it had slits up the side while leaving both her shoulders as well as her cleavage exposed. However such things meant little to them and besides, she was little more than a spirit at the moment. They had detected her arrival through a dimensional anomaly but only seized her after she attempted to possess a member of the McClay family. Given the importance of the member to their future plans, they had interceded but not before the spirit had promptly turned all but one of the people present into stone as retaliation for an ill-chosen comment. Given what they'd foreseen of the family's future that might've been for the best.

"Tala, you have been brought before this tribunal because a situation has arisen that might benefit us both," N.A. Leader declared, looking down on the spirit. "A young mortal has recently come into a considerable amount of magical potential but little to no experience in how to use it. We believe that properly nurtured he could become quite the piece on the game board."

"And where do I come in?" Tala asked in an alluring eastern European accent.

"We would like you to instruct him in the ways of sorcery. From the absolute basics to the furthest you can confidently manage on your own," the Asian leader replied without giving anything away. "In exchange for the faithful fulfilling of this duty, we will grant you a body closely approximating your original one before placing you on Earth at a location of your choosing."

"What's the catch?" Tala asked warily. "You higher types never make offers like this one without at least one catch."

"For the duration of your tenure as teacher you will be mystically tied to a mystical residence connected to the young man," E.H. replied, bringing up an image of the house created Halloween. "You'll have enough slack to go anywhere in the town of Sunnydale and the immediate surrounding area but attempt to go any further without your student and we WILL know."

"Should you fail in your assigned task or deliberately attempt to escape, not only will you forfeit the possibility of a new body but we will send you to your counterpart in this dimension," N.A. Leader explained, making it clear how undesirable the punishment was. "I believe she's the ruler of a large region of a particularly nasty hell dimension. I very much doubt that she will be pleased to learn of you and your past."

"It would appear that I have little choice in the matter," Tala said dryly, showing what she thought of their 'generosity'. "I accept your offer. I will do my best to instruct the potential sorcerer."

While not the submissive and deferential response they would've preferred, they had to concede that it was likely the best they would receive. With the completion of the pact they sent the woman on her way, placing the spirit in a faux body since some of her lessons would almost certainly require physical contact. It wouldn't be the same as the new body they had promised her, indeed it would be closer to Harris' age in appearance, but it would suffice for instructional purposes.

Plus they would be able to seize control of it at any time, making it do or say anything they desired with no one being the wiser for it.

"With an instructor safely chosen, shouldn't we also make sure Harris devotes himself to his studies?" N.A. Leader asked, pointing out an important fact. "It would, after all, be something of a nuisance if his development was delayed by unnecessary injury."

"You are referring to his desire to fight the demonic prowling the Hellmouth?" the Asian Leader asked rhetorically. "It is a simple matter to fix. I can have Travers reassign both Samuel Zabutu and his charge Slayer Kendra to the Sunnydale Hellmouth. Both are staunch traditionalists and will reject outside aid from Harris and Rosenberg. Should the two of them continue to involve themselves in the Hellmouth's defense, a harsh confrontation should put them in their place."

"Make it so," E.H. said, putting support behind the Asian Leader's proposed course of action.

With that the plans of those who made up the body known as The Powers That Be proceeded according to their desires.

Too bad they failed to recall the last plan of theirs that involved Harris.

 _ **Xander's Mind**_

 _We are inside the moment ^_ _ **between^**_ _moments. We may even be able to affect what happens when the quantum possibilities collapse into one reality. Our reality. Our future._

 _I believe observation and knowledge must precede action._

 _By Hoggoth, your brainless antics would try the patience of a saint!_

One after another a voice echoed in his head and with them images that made almost no sense to him. They were images of heroes and villains but they were not anyone he'd seen either on television or in the newspapers. Yet despite the fact that they were unknown to him, he couldn't help but shake the feeling of familiarity attached to each and every one of them. It was an unbearable conflict because he knew that the memories, for that is what he thought they were, were not his own because he'd never met a colorfully dressed hero in his life. Even though he knew it was a dream, he couldn't shove the alien content away from the forefront of his thoughts.

Indeed the more he focused on trying to get rid of them the more vivid the foreign memories became for him.

However it wasn't until he beheld a giant with a flaming head that radiated evil on a level unparalleled that his mind could take no more and sought the safety of the waking world.

Considering the fact that he lived atop a slightly plugged doorway to a hell dimension, that was saying something indeed.

 _ **Xander's Bedroom, 6 AM, Xander's POV**_

"By the Vishanti!" he exclaimed as he sat up in his bed, heart racing and his breathing hard.

As soon as he realized what he'd just said he immediately shook his head to knock loose the improper thinking. Despite what some of his teachers sometimes said, he could actually be quite quick on the uptake. Since he couldn't recall ever having such dreams in the past or saying anything like he just had, then that could only mean that something had happened recently to change things for him.

That meant it was connected to Halloween and had stuck around even with the spell being broken.

The question was: did he just have some extra memories bouncing around his head or had his special brand of luck saddled him with something more?

 _Guess there's only one way to find out,_ he thought as he reached out with his right hand. _According to Willow I managed to pull of some telekinesis in front of Buffy's house, so let's see if we can pull it off now._

True, all the cartoons, movies and comics that featured people moving things with their mind did little to provide a step by step process for how it worked but he was sure he could wing it. Focusing on his mini-TV, he first tried just to will it to float up a few inches off his dresser but, after slowly increasing his efforts to a point equal to acquiring Twinkies, he was forced to accept failure. If willpower wasn't the key then perhaps he wasn't focusing hard enough on the act itself.

Willow did often reprimand him on his difficulty focusing on things that he either didn't understand or wasn't interested in.

Closing his eyes, he followed the steps he'd come up with when he absolutely needed to learn something and couldn't afford to screw it up. First he clamped down on any unnecessary thoughts floating in the sea of consciousness that was his mind. Burying it as deep as possible, he then put a metaphorical muzzle on his emotions since they were the fuel for the chaos inside his head. When he felt as though his mind had become a calm mirror-like lake surface he opened his eyes and immediately willed the TV rise up off his dresser with the same effort as running required.

CCCRRAASSHHH!

"O-kay… that wasn't supposed to happen…" he said as he looked at the smashed remains of his television as well as the dent in the ceiling directly above it.

He'd only intended to make it rise up a foot at most but instead he'd apparently sent it rocketing up to the ceiling hard enough to damage to both entertainment device and his room.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?"

 _Great! Not only do I trash the TV that took me four months of saving money to buy, but I also wake Tony up!_ he griped as he got out of bed and moved to the window.

The donator of half his DNA would be in a foul mood for hours now so it'd be best for him to be somewhere else until the idiot either calmed down on his own or killed the memories with booze. Opening the window, he prepared to climb down to the ground when out of nowhere something wrapped around his neck and draped down his back. The surprise of this almost caused him to lose his grip on the windowsill but, once he was sure he wouldn't fall, he looked down to see the cape that'd been part of his costume.

It'd kept him from being turned into street pizza but he'd presumed that whatever power it'd been given by the Halloween spell had vanished soon after he'd touched down.

Apparently not and, seeing as how he'd just done something else non-normal with his TV, he felt it was safe to say that he'd picked up some extra baggage from Halloween.

 _Better get to Giles so he can give me a mojo checkup,_ he thought as he leapt from the window and did his best to FLOAT to the ground below. _Knowing my luck I probably picked up something bad to go with the good._

His descent wasn't graceful by any stretch of the imagination but it did show that his ability to handle the cloak was improved, if only by a little bit. With only a mildly jarring landing he began to make tracks for Giles' apartment, hoping the man wasn't a late riser like he usually was. As he ran he didn't forget the little alterations he'd made to his usual routine of walking since learning about what went on in Sunnydale after the sunset. He kept well clear of alleyways that were dark enough to protect a vamp from the rising light of the sun and did the same to the manhole covers. He also did his best to scrutinize anyone out and about for signs of demon heritage because, even while he knew there were peaceful demons, the Hellmouth tended to attract the bad ones more than the former. By combining all of this he could maximize his odds of getting to where he wanted to go without getting attacked.

It also helped to minimize the odds of anyone spotting him running around in his pajamas and a cloak.

He'd never hear the end of it if someone from school saw him.

A little over ten minutes later he arrived at Giles' door and promptly knocked three times before waiting for permission to enter.

Surprisingly enough he soon heard footsteps approaching the door and once it opened he found Giles dressed as he usually was with a cup of tea in his right hand.

"Xander? Well, this is a bit unexpected," Giles said as he stepped aside with a nonverbal invitation. "I had assumed that American teenagers were incapable of getting out of bed before ten in the morning unless forced."

"Yeah, well, I had a pretty good reason," he said before deciding that actions spoke louder than words.

With the utmost caution and care he willed the cloak to lift him up just a bit off the floor of Giles' apartment. Turns out 'a bit' was a little more than foot but it had the right effect since Giles immediately backed away with an expression of shock and confusion. Fortunately those emotions didn't last long and soon the Watcher's face looked analytical and speculative and that was good since those were the qualities he needed right now.

"Yes, well, I can see why you chose to bring this to my attention now," Giles said as he walked around his floating form. "I trust you have an explanation?"

"Halloween. I dressed up as a magician, more Merlin than David Copperfield, and while I didn't remember anything after the spell broke, I do now," he replied, recalling the dream that'd woken him up. "I woke up from a dream less than an hour ago, Giles, and… and I think they were memories, not dreams. The people and places I saw didn't match anything I've ever seen before. They looked like those Justice League guys on the news or the kinda people they fight. In my dream the memories I saw, whoever I turned into fighting with them!"

"I take it that it is this cloak that is levitating you off the ground rather than yourself?" Giles asked, coming to a stop.

"Yeah, but that's not all that's weird," he replied before looking for something unbreakable and siding with a book on a nearby table.

It was a little harder than in his bedroom, getting into the right mindset, but this time when he tried to move the book it didn't hit the ceiling like his television had.

Came close but not quite.

It was like balancing a book on his head while walking, with things see-sawing back and forth in terms of stability. He kept it there until he figured the Watcher had seen enough before letting go of the book, causing it to drop back onto the table with a thump.

"Interesting. While levitation is hardly an advanced form of magic, one does need to possess a degree of aptitude in order to use it," Giles said, sounding genuinely intrigued by what he was learning. "And you are certain you've never once had something unusual happen around you that might be magical in nature?"

"Pretty sure I haven't had a magical bone in my body up until now," he replied, remembering all the times being able to sling the mojo would've been nice.

"Well, the first thing we need to do is figure out just how much magical aptitude you possess," Giles said as he walked over to a table nearby and opened an ornate wooden box. "Once we know that, I will have a better idea on how we should proceed."

"Proceed? You mean like I sit in a fancy chalk circle, you chant and then everything goes back to normal?" he asked since, oddly enough, he felt a little conflicted about what should happen.

On the one end of things he was happy at finally having a talent or ability that'd allow him to pull his own weight around the rest of the gang. He might've made it look like he was okay being the only normal one of the group but that'd been a lie that the others had accepted without question. No one wanted to be the odd person out, especially when everyone else had something that made them special. Buffy was the Slayer, Giles was an occult library with legs and Willow was the smartest teenager at Sunnydale High School. Him? He was just the son of the town drunks, the school outcast and, as far as fighting demons was concerned, he could take a beating pretty good. He always gave it his all when he tried to help Buffy out but somehow he wound up being the person in need of rescuing more often than not. Sure, he occasionally got lucky and staked a vamp or managed to keep a demon busy until Buffy could slay it, but that's it.

To finally be able to take a respectable role in the Scooby gang… it was enough to make him believe in divine intervention.

Too bad he also had experience with the flipside of being able to do magic.

Amy's mom had shown him how people could use mojo for evil and considering where they were standing the odds that he might go down the same path were better than fifty-fifty. For a moment he could see in his head how he could slip down the slope to darkness and wind up being someone Buffy would have to slay in order to save the day. Was he really willing to take that chance? Was he so desperate to be a player that he was willing to risk going evil?

"This stone has been enchanted to glow in response to contact with anything imbued with magic. It's normally used by our acquisitions division whenever a potentially arcane item is discovered by the archeological community," Giles said, holding a stone about the size of a baseball. "In this case, though, you holding should tell us just how much magic you have in you at the moment. Here."

Looking at the stone in the Watcher's hand, he could see that it was glowing a light blue color, meaning that G-Man had magical potential but he already knew that. Reaching out for the stone, he figured he'd be lucky to get anything more than a point of light the size of a firefly so, without a care, he took the stone.

"AAAHHH!" he exclaimed as the stone lit up like the brightest light bulb available.

"Bloody hell!" G-Man yelled before the stone was plucked from his hand.

Once all the spots disappeared and his vision returned, he had to wonder if he hadn't somehow shorted out the stone somehow because there was no way in hell that it'd been an accurate read of his magical potential. A light that bright should've been reserved for Merlin's great, great, great grandson or someone with a bit of god blood running through their veins.

"Um… I think I broke it," he said, conveying how sorry he was.

"Unlikely. I have actually been present when a disruptive force has 'broken' one of these stones and it literally shattered the stone," Giles said as he walked to the table to put the stone away. "The reaction we just experienced… it would appear that the magic in you as well as your aptitude for sorcery has truly been made remarkable by Halloween."

Remarkable?

HIM?!

 _Why am I suddenly getting the urge to sign up for LOTS of life insurance?_ he thought sardonically since he figured that the higher he tried to soar now, the further he'd have to fall.

 _ **Later That Day, Willow's POV**_

 _It's no good,_ she thought as she walked to the library. _It's been a week since Buffy went into a coma and the doctor says she still hasn't shown any signs of coming out of it._

The very night she'd learned what Buffy's medical condition was she'd gone online to read all she could about head injuries and comas. She wasn't about to tell the doctors how to do their jobs but knowing the facts let her understand what was going on. By understanding what was going on, her fears and concerns were mostly alleviated since the unknown was truly distressing. Knowing though came with its bad patches since she knew that the longer someone lingered in a coma, the less likely they were to wake from it. Also, depending on the damage done from being dropped on her head, her friend might need to relearn some things from scratch. True, her Slayer healing might eliminate that outright but then again it might not.

There was no way to know for sure.

Pushing the doors of the library to the side, she entered the room…

…Only to find Xander sitting cross legged ABOVE the main table!

"Xander! What're you doing!?" she exclaimed, unable to figure out how her friend was floating ABOVE the table rather than sitting on it.

"Wha-!" Xander said, his eyes snapping open moments before dropping onto the table with a thump.

Seeing him teetering as if he might fall off any second, she rushed forward and with both hands managed to steady him. Once she was sure he wouldn't fall off she let him go before fixing him with her best 'start explaining buster' look.

"Um… some of my Halloween costume stuck. The magic part," he explained, looking like he wasn't quite sure how best to spill the truth.

Immediately she remembered what she'd seen and let out a breath of relief.

From what she'd seen all Xander's costume could do was a little floating and some telekinesis, so that wasn't too worrying. Sure, there'd been that one bright spell she'd seen him do before talking to him but since nothing had gotten destroyed, it was probably harmless. If all he could do was float or move things with his mind, he'd be fine so long as he didn't do any guy things she'd have to slap him upside the head for later. After all she'd seen some of the normal things that some of the jocks had done with their heads in the proverbial gutter and having telekinesis would've only made things worse.

"And the reason you didn't tell me about this?" she asked, figuring that she should've been the first person Xander told about this.

"Well, at first because I thought it'd go away in a couple of days but when it didn't I thought you'd worry if I told you," Xander said as he unfolded his legs and got off the table. "I mean, after what happened with Amy's mom…"

She shuddered the memory of how ruthless Amy's mom had been in her desire to relive her glory days. Switching bodies with her daughter, sabotaging the other cheerleader tryout applicants in potentially lethal ways and then trying to banish everyone, it didn't paint a good picture of witches in her mind. Still, it was silly to think that Xander would go all evil just because he could do a few magic tricks.

He might not think she knew but she was well aware that his home life was borderline criminal. She'd wanted several times to go to the police so that they'd take Mister and Missus Harris away for being bad to Xander but each time she'd been afraid that her best friend would get sent into Foster Care. While many good families were a part of the Foster Care system, there was a good chance it'd be a family away from Sunnydale that he'd get sent to. If that happened she'd be losing her oldest living friend and perhaps future husband if she could just get him to look at her as a woman rather than just a friend.

"Amy's mom was bad a long time, Xander," she said, doing her best to ease his fears. "And she didn't have anyone to keep an eye on her so that she didn't go bad. You do."

"Truer words were never spoken," Giles said as he left his office. "It is one of the greatest mistakes of people who learn they can do magic to attempt to teach themselves the mystic arts. Growing up in a world where science is the rational of choice, they presume that magic operates on similar rules. It does not."

"What do you mean?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

"With modern technology basic elemental forces can be controlled with great precision and made to follow strict pathways to gain the desired effect," Giles replied as he picked up a book sitting on the counter. "With magic the rules are more… ethereal… and often dependent on variables that can change as easily what emotions you feel can. There's also the fact that for many of the more powerful spells you will be calling on a deity of some sort and they do not think the same way humans do. While the recorded methods of tapping into their power will work most times, it is not absolute. On a whim they might decide to ignore your request, leaving you a rather nasty situation."

With that knowledge she could see how self-taught magic could be problematic. If the rules weren't set in stone there'd always be a degree of unpredictability involved and, if your efforts depended on the aid of a deity that could refuse, it'd leave you in a tight spot for sure. Still it wasn't like there were official schools where you could learn magic in every major city. Most people thought that magic was just the sort practiced by modern day stage magicians where it was more tricks, smoke and mirrors than genuine magic. Any schools that might exist out there were probably geared more to stage performers than learning how to toss fireballs or conjure weapons out of thin air. Those that claimed otherwise were probably just traps to lure in the gullible so they could be drained of money. With all those dead ends, finding the right books and teaching yourself was the only for sure way to learn what you wanted to learn.

"Then, of course, there's the mistake that most new practitioners make: they misinterpret the cost of performing certain spells or rituals," Giles said as he began to skim through the book in his hand. "All magic comes with a cost. The more it goes against the rules of nature, the greater the price one must pay in order to successfully cast the spell or perform the ritual. Sadly many of the books and scrolls containing the particulars are in old languages, not to mention the fact that the writers were sometimes ambiguous with how they phrased things. A spell could require that sacrifice something precious to you and you would think it would be a possession but in fact it might mean someone you care about or perhaps a couple of years shaved off your expected lifespan. Correctly interpreting the spell and its cost is of the utmost importance if you want to live long enough to be considered an experienced practitioner."

She had to frown a bit at that.

Surely if someone wanted to record the facts about a spell or ritual they'd have the sense to make it clear and precise for those who would read it in the future. Sloppily done instructions would only lead to failures and the reputation of the one who wrote down the facts would plummet as people called their competency into question. It was key for every great inventor to not only make something but also leave instructions so that others could duplicate their work on their own and get the same results. Instructions also allowed those who followed to scrutinize each part of the invention, thus gaining inspiration for their own projects. To hear that sorcerers and sorceresses accidentally or purposefully wrote their work down in ways that could be misinterpreted made her think that they were more than a little mean.

"Well, I think this book should do to get you started, Xander," Giles said, handing her best friend the book he'd been leafing through. "'Basic Magical Theory' by Richard Gambon. A bit dry but the man did have sense enough to throw in a few amusing anecdotes to retain the attention of the reader."

The book wasn't quite as big as a Los Angeles phone book but it was still pretty thick.

Xander would probably get a third of the way through before getting bored and asking Giles if he had a copy of 'Magic of Dummies' somewhere on the shelf. It wasn't that she thought her best friend was stupid, he was good enough to keep up with her in the advanced classes, after all, but he had little to no academic ambition. To him school was just something to slog through on the way to a graduation diploma since most employers insisted that their employees had at minimum a high school education. She'd tried to convince him that learning could be fun if he just gave it a chance but he'd made an offhand comment once that, unless it involved learning how to make things go boom, he wasn't interested.

She hadn't quite given up on changing his mind but she would wait until she had a convincing argument ready to go before talking to him about it.

RRRIIIINNNGG!

"Well that's the bell for class," she said as she grabbed Xander's arm. "It's Mister Shimerman's class and you know what he does to anyone who's late."

"Do I EVER!" Xander said as he grabbed his book bag. "I know they have different last names but I swear he's got to be related to Snyder somehow."

She could only nod at that.

 _ **The Sidewalk Approaching Sunnydale High School, Tala's POV**_

 _Time to collect my student so I can earn my reward as swiftly as possible,_ she thought as she kept her eyes focused on the front gate of the high school.

While her decision making ability hadn't served her very well in the past, considering how things had gone from Cadmus through to Gorilla Grodd and Lex Luthor, those three had been ideal compared to her current wardens.

No one could've been more amazed than she'd been when, instead of oblivion or some sort of afterlife, she'd found herself in a new world after Luthor used her body as a catalyst to bring back Braniac.

It'd been more than a little annoying to find herself reduced to a spectral entity without a body but that had been easy enough to rectify by seeking out those suitably receptive to magic. Upon finding a young blonde girl brimming with potential, she'd immediately moved in and at first she'd intended to pretend to be her host while secretly tweaking the body to her specifications. Unfortunately the girl's father and most of the other males of the family were of the opinion that all magic was the work of Satan and those capable of using it were demon-human hybrids. When one of the brothers had caught her casting a simple warding spell around her room, he'd immediately informed the father, leading to a loud argument with her host's mother about her sinful practices.

She'd been more than content to let the older woman take the brunt of the yelling right up until the husband had begun to use violence as an instructional tool. At that point the girl's spirit, still within the body but suppressed, began to show impressive strength and attempted to regain control. Faced with the possibility of being ejected from the host body, she'd instead chosen to act and had promptly cast a spell of petrification on all the males, eliminating the threat they posed.

Sadly that had left her tired since it'd been a spell that had required most of the magic that her host had possessed and that was when her current wardens had struck. They had pulled her spirit form out of the girl's body and, promptly after reading the list of charges against her, had thrown her into a jail cell specifically designed to contain spirits. Naturally she hadn't taken her imprisonment lightly and had spent as much time as she could trying to find a way to escape her cell, but to no avail.

She hadn't known how long she'd been in the cell before suddenly she was before her jailers once more but this time they had a proposition for her. It hadn't been perfect and they'd made it clear that they didn't trust her to live up to her end of the bargain without incentive and warnings, but it was preferable to imprisonment so she'd agreed.

The past few days she'd spent familiarizing herself with the house that would be her home for the foreseeable future and she was far from disappointed with it. The books, the scrolls, the artifacts and the fact that the building was definitely employing dimensional magicks to be bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside had left her with many things to sate her curiosity.

However it'd been less than an hour ago that her three wardens had emphatically and painfully informed her that they would tolerate no more delays in her task. So, with a slight glamor to allow her to blend in with the locals, she'd left the house and proceeded to where she'd been told Alexander Harris could be found. It had not been a pleasant trip thus far since even in such a limited body she could feel the infernal energy engulfing the small town and found herself incredulous that the locals were oblivious to it. Nevertheless she'd used an alleyway to covertly cast a few protection spells on herself in order to keep the hellish energy from contaminating her. While such pollution generally took a few years to visibly change a practitioner's personality and behavior, she wasn't willing to take the chance.

She refused to become like her mother and take up residence in the underworld because the forces of light judged her too dangerous to remain in the mortal realm.

Stopping just across the street from the front gates of the school property, she looked through a nearby store window to look at the clock and saw that it was only a few minutes away from when the students would be released, frowning with disapproval at the fact that she would be forced to come up with her lesson plan around the more mundane teachings that were spoon fed to teenagers in high school. Her task would be completed that much quicker if all of the Harris boy's time was spent either sleeping or learning the ways of magic under her but there was a limit to what methods she could use to 'convince' him to prioritize his mystical education.

Much to her disappointment blowing up the school so he would have no choice was not among the methods she was permitted to employ.

Hearing the bell that signified the end of the school day, she sharpened her focus on the gates so that she could spot her student as swiftly as possible. She already had a loose plan in mind to convince him to accept her as his arcane instructor but she had a few contingencies in mind should things not go as planned. From all that she had learned of him he was your typical teenage boy with abusive parents and friends he valued so much that he'd ignore or tolerate the wrongs they did to him in order to avoid being alone. A few confidence-boosting compliments, some increased assertiveness about the treatment he deserved and perhaps using his inexperience with the female gender to her advantage would do wonders for controlling him.

That was after all what her wardens wanted after all: a controllable game piece on the board where they fought their war against the darkness.

Indeed, if any word could be chosen to exemplify the three it would be CONTROL. Everything had to be done precisely as they dictated and those who refused to obey were either forced back in line or replaced with someone who would obey. She had not seen any significant proof that Harris was worth all this effort but she doubted that her wardens would have let her out of her cell on a whim.

 _Perhaps if the boy proves to be strong enough an alliance would win me my freedom sooner rather than later,_ she thought as the students began pouring out of the front gates.

It didn't take long before she spotted her student amidst the throng and, as she'd been told to expect, there was a redheaded girl walking alongside him. According to her wardens the girl was academically smart and might very well rise to become someone important in the field of science, but also had quite a bit of influence over her student. It was also said that her appetite for learning anything useful was like an addiction that was enticed at even the slightest hint of something interesting. No doubt if Alexander showed that he was learning magic the girl would likely want to learn under her as well.

 _Hmmmm, an unintended apprentice perhaps?_ she thought as a possible course of action came to mind. _I could always excuse it away as a means by which to increase Alexander's dedication to his training while pretending to hinder her mystical development. If the two are as close as most friends are then it is inevitable that he will teach his friend the things he comes to master._

Before all that, though, she had to first actually meet with the boy and inform him of her status as his magic teacher as determined by her jailers. She was sure he'd refuse her flat out or not believe her in the first place but fortunately her wardens had provided her with an item that would support her status once presented to the Watcher Rupert Giles. All members of the Watchers Council had been shown images of similar items throughout their training and told what it meant when presented with the item. Once her backing was proven beyond a reasonable doubt, she was sure everything would fall into place on that side of the matter. However she would have to make it clear to the Watcher that his superiors never know about her presence or Alexander's instruction. She'd only gotten a summary of what the supernatural defense organization was like but it sounded a lot like Waller's Cadmus operation only with twice as many delusions of grandeur and half as much compassion.

Considering that Amanda Waller, nicknamed 'The Wall', treated people both good and bad as nothing more than assets to be utilized in her operations, it meant the Council was run by truly heartless individuals. If they learned that Alexander Harris was receiving instruction by someone appointed by THEM, they would almost certainly look for ways to take advantage of him. Likely they would try to use him as a way of speaking directly to THEM or pretend to be 'helpful' with his instruction while making sure they were seen in the most favorable light.

Bottom line, they'd prioritize their own advancement over everything else, weighing their efforts in a 'costs versus benefits' frame of mind.

 _Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it,_ she thought before bringing forth what little magic she had access to.

After all, she wouldn't be able to do her job as an instructor if she was unable to perform the same spells as Alexander would need to master in order to do his future job.

With a gesture and a spell she'd learned upon finishing her lessons with her first instructor, she cast a field around the immediate area putting everyone but Alexander and his friend slightly out of sync with everyone else, temporally speaking. It wouldn't last very long but fortunately, thanks to being made aware of what the former ruling warlock had done to the town, she was able to cast the spell using far less energy than she otherwise would have been forced to.

Predictably the young man and the girl were quick to notice the absence of other people and so she chose to take advantage of the confusion and how he'd interpret it.

"Do not worry, Alexander Harris. I have simply taken us out of sync with the rest of the citizenry so that we can talk in private," she said, drawing his attention to her as she casually approached the two teenagers. "Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Tala and I have been tasked with training you in your new mystic talents."

"Tasked? By who?" Alexander asked, looking wary as well as confused.

"I doubt the Watcher has told you about them in much detail but they are usually referred to as The Powers That Be. They are charged with coordinating the fight against The Darkness," she replied, not at all surprised when incredulity came over the faces of the two youths. "They were watching when the spell took hold on Halloween and, when they learned that the magical might of the person you became remained, it was determined that you would need proper instruction."

"Um… I don't know who these Powers are but Giles is already teaching me magic," Alexander said, sounding uneasy but still polite. "If it's okay with them I'll stick with him. No offense."

Not entirely unexpected but fortunately she had a plan for that.

"While I am sure your Watcher friend is a learned man, it's my understanding that his own magical aptitude is actually quite small, requiring the utilization of external resources to do anything of merit," she said, mirroring his polite tone. "You, on the other matter, have a veritable lake of magic within you. Learning under him might give you a grasp of the basics but you will never fulfill your true potential under him. It would be like someone capable of winning the world heavyweight boxing title being taught by someone who never even fought in an official match."

"Giles might not be a big shot in the magic world but if he doesn't know something about magic then it's probably not worth knowing." Alexander said, a somewhat defensive look on his face.

Loyalty.

For her loyalty was nothing more than an asset to be bargained with in order to get in a favorable position where the rewards were plentiful. It was why she had thrown in her lot with Waller, Grodd and Luthor. Each of them had been very powerful in their own way and being their favored granted her certain benefits.

The most valuable being that, so long as it played a role in one of their schemes, she could acquire various mystical items that would've been beyond her reach otherwise. Naturally she told each of them that she would be retaining possession of everything after her official operation was completed, so she did her best to acquire more than was needed for the spell/ritual/ceremony of the day. By the time that Luthor had reclaimed control over the Legion of Doom from Grodd, she had acquired quite the little collection.

A collection that she very much wanted to get back to since she'd had the foresight to store it all someplace other than the Legion's HQ.

That meant that she needed to provide him with yet another reason why he should choose her as his instructor.

"Perhaps, but there is another reason why it would be best to allow me to instruct you," she said before using what ties she had with her newest home to summon the way.

With a process of manifestation that came in parts, a door appeared behind her little by little until it was fully ready to be used.

"You may think that all that remained after Halloween was your magic but you would be wrong." The door opened to reveal the occult styled interior of the house on the other side. "Something else was made real and, like you, hasn't gone away with the breaking of the spell. Perhaps you have a few lingering memories of what's on the other side of the door."

Judging from the haunted look of recognition on Alexander's face her hunch had proven to be correct. One step forward turned into two and then two became three before an arm reached out, as if to touch the door in order to make sure it was real.

"The Sanctum Sanctorum," Alexander gasped, almost in disbelief.

"Indeed. It is not known why it manifested itself in this reality," she said, leaving the door open to serve as a consistent reminder. "The spell should've only affected the costumes that were enchanted by Ethan Rayne but here it is. As your instructor I've been exploring it to see what I have to work with and I can assure you it is just as filled as one would expect of a sorcerer's home. Books, scrolls, artifacts and more, I imagine. What do you think will happen should the world learn of its existence?"

The look of fear and dread that blossomed on the young man's face made it clear he had a GOOD imagination.

"We gotta tell Giles! Tell the Watchers Council!" Alexander blurted out reflexively, turning to the only responsible adult he knew as well as the only organization he knew versed in the supernatural.

"And you really think that they will be able to keep some of the blackest of sorcerers and sorceresses from entering the Sanctum Sanctorum?" she asked with a complete lack of faith. "I might not be as deeply familiar with them as some but I do know that, aside from their pet Slayer, they're all one hundred percent human. Most of those in power are old enough to be your grandparent. How long do you really think they would last against those who would come for the Sanctum?"

In her mind the Watcher's Council might have been great back a few centuries ago but in the present they were a mere shadow of their former selves, riding the coattails of their Slayer warrior. If the fight got brought to them by those seeking the contents of the Sanctum Sanctorum, the best outcome would be for the few magically inclined members of the Council might halve the opposing force. Aside from that, the warlocks and witches would win and claim a veritable treasure trove of magical items to do with as they would.

"I still don't see why Giles can't be my teacher," Xander said, sounding like he wouldn't be turning over defense of the Sanctum to the Watchers after all. "He's been good so far and with what the Sanctum has, he can probably get me up to speed in no time."

"With due respect to Rupert Giles, his knowledge of the arcane might be… adequate… but his ability to perform magic is significantly limited," she said, remembering what she had learned about the man. "Have you not ever wondered why he relies on archaic weapons on patrol? If he were truly capable in the field of magic, he should at least be able to manifest a ball of fire or lash out with a bolt of electricity. From what I've heard he is entirely dependent on outside sources for power and the magic he is capable of performing takes time to use. Hardly effective for combat."

"So maybe he can learn some new tricks with what's inside the Sanctum," Alexander suggested, clearly not willing to give up on passing the responsibility to Rupert Giles.

That needed to change.

"I very much doubt he'd know where to begin," she said, making it clear she thought the contents of the Sanctum were beyond the Watcher's ability to handle. "It would be the equivalent of asking a small town librarian to become the head curator of the British Museum. They'd be utterly overwhelmed and completely unprepared. Eventually, with help, the librarian might learn to get a handle on it, but eventually is a luxury you are unlikely to have."

There.

The doubt had been planted regarding the ability of Watcher Giles to adequately instruct Harris in the field of sorcery.

Now only one more thing was needed.

"I can see you still have some doubts," she said before tossing the proving item at Alexander who reflexively caught it. "Show that to your Watcher friend. I believe that he'll recognize it well enough to vouch for my status and my credibility as a magical instructor. When he does, head for the northern edge of Sunnydale. I'll be waiting with your first day of lessons prepared."

With that she canceled the spell she'd cast for some privacy and a moment later walked through the door before closing it behind her. With the shutting of the door the one outside of Sunnydale High School would vanish, leaving nothing to show that it was ever there in the first place.

While there was some doubt that even her proof item would be enough to secure Alexander as her student, she had contingency plans for that. Some were ethical enough while others… so long as he never found out that she was involved everything, would be okay.

This was her life and future freedom on the line, after all.

 _ **Sunnydale High School, Library, Giles' POV**_

"GILES!" came a duet of a bellow from the entrance to the library.

Turning towards the yelling, he saw both Willow and Xander running in, looking like they'd seen an Old One coming down the street towards the school. While it was possible that the teenagers were getting overexcited about something, he was willing to give them the benefit of a doubt since they'd seen enough of the Hellmouth dangers to have an accurate measure of things.

"What's wrong? Has something happened?" he asked, putting down a book he'd been reading.

"WemetaladynamedTalawhosaidshe'dbeenappointedbythePowersThatBetotrainXanderinmagic." Willow babbled in her usual manner when she was overly excited. "Shesaidhehadgreatpotentialand-"

"Calmness, Willow. Take a deep breath. I am afraid that I am not as fluent in your method of babbling as Xander," he said, only being able to catch half of what the young woman had spoken.

"We were leaving school when this lady that I don't think was human pulled some sort of trick to make everyone else disappear for a while." Xander said, deciding likely that he'd be more comprehensible. "She said that she'd been hired to teach me magic by some group called The Powers That Be because the magic of the guy I turned into stuck after the costume spell ended."

"The Powers That Be? That is the precise term that this woman used?" he asked, his mind instantly taking every word spoken a great deal more seriously.

"Yeah, word for word. She said they were in charge of calling the shots for the people fighting the good fight," Xander replied, sounding like he'd caught a glimmer of understanding about how important things were. "You've heard of them?"

"Indeed I have. They have figured prominently in the Watcher chronicles from the day the Council was founded. No one has ever actually met them as it is said that they only convey their will indirectly via prophetic visions or agents," he replied as he summarized all that he knew. "Nevertheless it is said that they are the ones who choose who will become the next Slayer after the previous one has died. They are also the ones who in the past have sent Buffy her Slayer visions in order to warn her of an incoming threat."

Indeed, they were almost legendary and divine in reputation but he could not be sure that the woman that the two teenagers had met was truly one of their agents. There had been countless attempts by the forces of Darkness to impersonate them in order to manipulate agents of the light, or even set forces against them in order to advance their own agenda. Efforts had been made by the Council as well as other organizations over the years in order make it impossible to fake being an agent of the Powers That Be in the end it was the august body who developed a method.

"Did this woman offer any proof of her status as an agent of The Powers That Be?" he asked while mentally debating the possibilities.

"Yeah. This," Willow said as she took an item out of her pocket and presented it to him.

His shock and anxiety spiked as he saw the symbol crafted from a silver-like metal in the girl's hand that perfectly matched the drawings that'd been in his Watcher Academy books. Snatching it out of her hand he began to thoroughly examine it from every angle, his eyes looking for even the slightest evidence that it could be a forgery. The drawings he'd seen had been done showing the item from all angles and some of the instructors had even made fakes of their own with varying degrees of detail to see if the students could identify the forgeries. When nothing could be seen to the naked eye he took the item into his office, picked up his artifact examination kit from its place next to his desk and began to use its contents to find the attributes beyond human senses.

The sense of time he possessed got fuzzy as the entirety of his focus was directed in verifying the authenticity of the item lying on his desk at this very moment. Willow and Xander could be at this very moment saying something to him but he would not notice as he was determined to verify the authenticity of the item.

The item passed every test he could think of and matched what his instructors had told him to expect should he ever be presented with proof by an agent of The Powers That Be.

Turning to face the two teenagers, he was a little surprised to see that they were gone from where he'd last seen them. However when he heard sounds from the main table he looked that way to find the duo sitting down and apparently working on their homework. It took only a few seconds for them to realize that he was looking at them and, once they did, they turned away from their school work.

"Sorry but you were taking so long we decided to get some homework done," Willow said, sounding a little more enthusiastic about what she was doing than Xander looked at the moment.

"I am sorry for taking so long but I had to be certain that this was indeed what it appeared to be since there have been many attempts at forgeries in the past," he said as he placed the item on the table before Xander. "However, after exhaustive examination, I have determined that this is indeed genuine. As such if this Tala woman has been charged with instructing you in the mystic arts, I would suggest that you take her up on the offer."

"You're dumping me?" Xander asked, sounding a little shocked and a little hurt.

"No, no, no! I am doing nothing of the sort," he replied, shaking his head in the negative. "I merely believe that anyone The Powers That Be selected to be your instructor would be imminently more qualified than myself. Given the sheer amount of magical potential you possess, I would be unable to help you harness more than a fraction of it."

"Why is that?" Willow asked, her curiosity roused.

"Suffice it to say, due to an incident in my youth I've been letting whatever magical aptitude I possessed rust somewhat from lack of use. Training at the Watchers Council academy might have scraped some of the rust off but only in so much as was necessary in order to meet the required standards for graduation," he replied, keeping the truth of his time as a rebel. "Since then I have been assigned more to research positions and the occasional artifact retrieval trips. To sum it all in simplest terms, I believe it would be better if you were to learn under an MVP pro athlete than a simple high school coach."

"That's what Tala said," Xander said, still sounding a bit hurt but also looking as though he'd be able to get over it soon enough.

"Then I find I must agree with her," he said, conveying the strength of his position. "However as a Watcher it is my duty to report this to my superiors since this is not a development that can be omitted."

"Um… Tala kinda emphasized that we SHOULDN'T tell your bosses," Xander said, sounding like he was doing his best to phrase things just right.

"And why is that?" he asked, a little puzzled at a representative of the Powers having a low opinion of the Council.

To his knowledge the Council was one of the main arms of the Powers on Earth and there had never been any rumors that they'd fallen out of favor with the higher beings even temporarily. Surely whomever they would choose to teach Xander would share their opinion of the Council.

"'Cause it's not just my powers that stuck around after Halloween," Xander replied cautiously, looking at him closely. "Turns out a house came into being outside of Sunnydale. My costume's memories call it the 'Sanctum Sanctorum' and it's filled with sorcerer stuff. She didn't think it'd be a good idea for word of it to get out and she didn't think that the Council would be up to the challenge of protecting it. Basically she said that the Council was filled with old men that can't do quick fire combat magic and so they can't be counted on to protect the Sanctum or its contents. Doesn't mean they won't try, though."

"They just have to succeed once. The Council would have to win every single time," Willow said, putting her own thoughts forward.

True.

If this new building did have within it valuable items of an arcane nature then, once word of it spread far enough, anyone with even a bit of ambition would seek to claim something from it. The truly greedy would attempt to claim it all and, while it was impossible to discern a threat level of such an outcome without doing an inventory, he very much doubted it would be encouraging.

As for the matter of the Council's ability to consistently protect it from harm, while he would like to say that his fellow Watchers were not so incapable of combating arcane threats as Tala claimed, there was a sliver of truth to it. While the Council did employ many people capable of using magic to fight, it was a fairly standard rule that magical power only came with age. The longer one lived, the more one learned and the more one trained, allowing them to become stronger. However it was also the case that as one got older your body got weaker and its stamina decreased, limiting what you could do with the knowledge and power you gained. Those who were part of the light accepted these truths, using what they had to do good before retirement arrived.

Those allied with the Darkness, however, wanted as much power as they could get, to keep it for as long as possible and to pay as little of the traditional costs as they could get away with. Normally all three were achieved by sacrificing something important, though whether it belonged to them or someone else varied from case to case. Some sacrificed their humanity or their soul but most chose to kidnap others and make them pay the price instead.

Given how this could make the numbers of good versus evil a tad lopsided in a purely arcane combat scenario, advance intelligence was often crucial. It gave the Council mages time to prepare, allowing for both defenses to be created and for attacks to be primed for use. In this respect Tala was correct that repeated combat with forces intent on plundering this Sanctum Sanctorum would make claiming victory ever more difficult for the forces of light. The current leader of the Council would probably insist that all items of value be removed from the Sanctum Sanctorum then relocated to the maximum security storehouses that any important Watcher property was stored in until needed. Naturally that ass Travers would insist on each item being examined in order to determine the proper way to store it and keep it from unworthy hands, but that would just be a cover to either copy the item or use it without Xander's knowledge.

Put in those terms it would be the correct course of action to keep the building and what lay within a secret for as long as possible. Ideally it would be nice to keep it a secret until Xander was fit to be their protectors but that would take time. Based on the historical texts he had read, even those considered prodigies in the field of magic needed at least five years before they could be skilled enough to stand on their own.

Would they be able to keep the existence of the Sanctum Sanctorum a secret for that long?

 _All we can do is try._ "Very well. Until circumstances arise that require desperate measures, I will not report the house's existence. I will also attempt to downplay your magical potential as best I can but it will hinge on you not performing anything… flashy outside of the Sanctum. You never know who may be watching after all."

This statement had the desired effect of lightly spooking the lad and hopefully Xander would be less inclined towards being reckless with his undeveloped magical potential.

He remembered far too many students in the academy that came from 'great and powerful' bloodlines becoming arrogant enough to use their magic to show off.

If the teachers didn't teach them a lesson, the demons they thought they'd be able to easily vanquish did, most often with fatal consequences.

He prayed that Xander proved to be wiser than those fools.


	3. On the job training

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing that in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are people who enjoy reading my stories. Therefore I would greatly appreciate it if no legal action were taken against me.

PS-Positive reviews will be appreciated. Constructive criticism will be considered but not necessarily acted upon. People looking to ruin my day by spewing their bashing bile about in their review will be ignored at the least and review blocked at the worst.

 _ **The Street Heading to the Northern edge of Sunnydale, The Next Day**_

 _ **Xander's POV**_

 _Why do I get the feeling that I'm stepping more and more away from my comfort zone?_ he thought as he made his way in the direction of where Tala had told him the Sanctum would be.

Maybe it was because that, up until Halloween, he'd only seen the life of support-o-guy in his future but with the potential he supposedly had for magic now, he stood a chance of becoming something MORE.

Of becoming someone MORE than what he'd ever thought possible.

Thanks to Tony Harris' repeated verbal and physical beat downs his opinion of his potential and what he could realistically accomplish had never been very high. It'd gone up a bit when he'd managed to get into and stay in Willow's advanced placement classes but even then he knew he was staying in by the skin of his teeth thanks to his best friend's tutoring. Now, through Giles and Tala, he was being told that not only did he have the potential to be one of the heavy hitters of the magic scene but also was the defacto owner of a Sanctum Sanctorum full of magic stuff.

There was no way anyone could take in all that and not be shocked.

At the same time, though, he felt a little excited and in favor of this development since it'd mean that in time he would be able to finally contribute something other than his sense of humor and determination. In the beginning he'd chosen to fight beside Buffy in order to get revenge on the vampires that'd killed Jesse and perhaps win her heart in the process. By the end of last year those plans had been seriously watered down to 'help protect the innocent' and 'remain her trusted friend and ally'. For some reason she preferred the affections of a demon inhabited corpse to a living, breathing teenage guy and he was educated through experience where he stood in relation to vampires where power was concerned.

Even with all that, though, he felt as though his time with the Scoobies, with Buffy, was steadily making him a better man than Tony could ever hope to be. Even before he'd met Buffy and learned the truth of the world, it had been his most desperate wish to become a better man than Tony and by fighting the good fight he was doing it. If Tony ever came face to face with a vampire, he'd probably piss himself before begging for his miserable life, saying whatever came to mind.

Assuming the asshole didn't faint.

Now… now he had a chance to finally step away from the shadow of Tony Harris but he did not know if the light would wind up being worse than the darkness.

Before Halloween, even if he worked his entire life, he'd never seen himself becoming more than half the kind of guy Giles was. Being that kind of man was feasible enough and wouldn't rate him much attention from the baddies, but if he became bigger than that because he used magic, it'd lead to one helluva spotlight being dropped on top of him. There'd be expectations and, with a treasure trove of magic stuff added on, there was no small bit of pressure involved in what he was about to embark upon. In all likelihood he'd have to become as powerful and as skilled a champion as Buffy was but that sort of thing didn't happen outside of the comic books.

Then again, considering the founding of the Justice League, perhaps it might just happen after all.

It was a minute later that he spotted the top of a house as he walked further up the hill. While he couldn't say he knew every inch of Sunnydale, he did recall going exploring up this hill once with Jesse and Willow when they were younger. That was why he could say with reasonable certainty that there shouldn't be a house up this way. While Sunnydale wasn't frozen in place, it wasn't very often that new buildings were constructed and usually those were of the public buildings and educational facilities type. So the possibility that someone would think to build a house up this way so far from the center of Sunnydale was unlikely.

As he got closer he got a better look at the top floor of the house and immediately his focus snapped to the oddly designed skylight that perfectly matched the one he'd glimpsed in his dreams. Feeling emboldened by this he picked up the pace, watching as the house got bigger and bigger until he finally stood before it and saw that it was easily size of a mansion. More than that, though, he felt something that made him think that this was more than just a house. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but for some reason he felt like the house was looking at him even as he was looking at it.

But wouldn't that imply that it was alive, or at least sentient?

In any case, what he saw pretty much settled the fact that he'd found where Tala would be teaching him so he walked up to the front door, raising his arm to knock since he figured that it'd only be polite to do so. Before his fist could touch the wood, though, the door opened, revealing an older styled interior like you'd find in a building designed in the nineteen twenties. Stepping inside, he couldn't see any of the personal touches he remembered from his memories but the rest of the stuff was present just like he 'remembered'. He jumped a little bit when the door closed behind him but didn't do the clichéd thing of turning around to look at it.

"Hey, Tala! I'm here for my lesson! You here?" he yelled since he couldn't spot the curvy woman with his eyes.

"Down here, Alexander," Tala said but her voice was a little odd.

It didn't sound like she was yelling and his instincts had a pretty good idea of where the voice was coming from but it didn't make sense that he could hear someone from that far away if they weren't yelling. He wrote it off as just being magic so, with a shrug, he began to trot towards the part of the house Tala's voice had come from. When he got to the room he could see that it indeed had been set up for the point of instructing someone, with a single school desk in the center, a large table at the front and what looked to be a chemistry set on a table off to the side.

"Well, at least you're punctual," Tala said from her position before a blackboard, a piece of chalk in hand. "Now sit down. I've created a very structured lesson plan designed to maximize the rate at which you learn to use your magic. Personally I would've preferred if you'd dropped out of that mundane school and devoted every spare moment to learning magic but I'll make due with what I have."

"If it wasn't for the fact that Willow would be mad at me for dropping out and you kinda need a high school diploma to get a job, I'd put in my two week resignation warning first thing tomorrow," he said, not liking the classes at Sunnydale High.

Personally he thought that he'd find magical studies much more interesting and therefore easier to absorb into his brain, such as it was.

"However doing so would be bothersome, let's begin," Tala said before performing motions with her right hand.

The reason became evident a moment later when a book floated over from a shelf, dropping on his school desk where a pen and paper awaited.

"For the first hour of the lesson we will be dealing with the history of magic in this world, starting from the earliest record," Tala said with three more gestures that opened his book to the relevant page. "Before one can even begin learning how to use their own magic they must come to appreciate how hard it was for the early inventors of the common spells to harness the power in the first place."

From that point on he listened to everything Tala had to say, taking notes on the paper provided in the manner that'd been drilled into him by Willow over many years. Say what you will about his bestest bud but, when it came to the tools of academia, she'd mastered them long ago while he was nothing but a bumbling amateur. Still, the form of short hand that she'd taught him allowed him to keep up with everything his instructor was saying but, surprisingly enough, that wasn't as difficult as it normally was with the teachers at Sunnydale High. Indeed, he oddly found himself listening carefully to every word, like it was a news report revealing the next installment of his favorite film franchise.

Was it the different subject that made him take interest or was it the teacher?

It was more than likely a difference in subject because, from what he was hearing, Tala wasn't talking or explaining things all that differently than any other teacher.

 _Not exactly learning how to make things go boom yet but it tells of a possible boom in the future,_ he thought as he continued to take notes.

He guessed that sometimes it just took the right subject to get a student interested.

 _ **Sunnydale High School, Library, One Week Later**_

 _ **Giles' POV**_

Looking at the clock, he took his glasses off to clean them for what had to be the thirteenth time as he waited for the Council's special operatives to arrive.

He'd been told precious little about what to expect, only that it would be two people, one Watcher and one combat specialist, but it had been made clear that he was to brief them on the current status of the Hellmouth before turning guard duties over to them temporarily. He had attempted to learn more only to be stonewalled by those who would know leaving him somewhat uneasy about who the two operatives would be.

It was no secret that Travers' traditionalist faction and the moderate faction he belonged two rarely saw eye to eye on how the Council should be run. The former had a borderline fanatical obsession with treading the same path as their predecessors, treating their methods as sacred not to mention above reproach. The latter, however, supported a more evolutionary way of thinking wherein they believed that the Council should adapt to the times and continually find newer as well as better ways of performing their sacred duty. Neither side held enough strength to completely negate the influence of the other but it meant that any changes the moderates wanted to institute took a long time to happen while the traditionalists needed to compromise more often than they'd like.

All in all, with Travers having likely chosen the operatives, they'd likely be firm members of the Traditionalist camp.

 _I just hope that they will at least remain civil during this meeting,_ he thought as he put his glasses back on. _A few Traditionalists that I've spoken with have been unbearably smug._

When he heard the door open he turned to see who it was and instantly recognized the man, even if he didn't recognize the young Jamaican woman following behind him.

Samuel Zabuto.

The man was a respected Watcher both due to his knowledge of the various disciplines needed to fight the fight, as well as being one of the more reasonable members of the traditionalist faction. He was still very much a by the book person who did everything with a strict hand but, unlike Travers, the man didn't seem to be arrogant. Zabuto simply believed that the mission took priority over everything else and that the people assigned to the mission needed to operate with the utmost discipline.

While he did not disagree that the mission of the Watcher's Council was important, he believed that being too tightly wound could actually be harmful to a person's performance. Versatility and adaptability were key components to overcoming the threats posed by the demonic and the supernatural. If one became too rigid in their way of thinking, if they adhered too strongly to tradition, they would not be able to overcome the enemy.

"Mister Giles," Zabuto said, extending a hand.

"Mister Zabuto," he said, taking the hand and shaking it. "Welcome to Sunnydale and the Hellmouth. I am sure it will be an… informative stay."

"I'm sure it will be. While I have been to Hellmouths before, this is the most active one at the moment," Zabtuo said as they released hands. "I also reviewed your reports on the plane ride over and, while I believe you should have exerted a stronger hand where Slayer Summers is concerned, the fact that we are still alive to talk about it means no lasting harm was done."

"I will concede that Miss Summers has not strictly adhered to traditional Slayer protocols however she has nonetheless done her duty," he said, defending his Slayer while not directly opposing the man's position. "Early on I determined that giving her some control over her life was the best way to convince her to combat the threats present in Sunnydale."

"I am not trying to criticize your methods, Mister Giles. However consider that if you had forbade her from taking part in the Halloween chaperoning activity, she would not have been affected by Mister Rayne's spell and therefore would not be in a coma," Zabuto said politely without any recriminatory tones.

"Based on what Miss Summers told me, she did not voluntarily sign up for the chaperoning activity but rather was forced to apply by Principal Snyder. The odious troll seems to revel in abusing his power at every opportunity, he particularly seems keen on targeting Miss Summers as well as anyone associated with her," he explained, remembering what Buffy had told him quite clearly. "If she had not consented to the task, I imagine he would've assigned her quite a bit of detention and that would make both her life as well as her duty needlessly complicated."

"Have you considered the possibility that this principal might very well be in league with the nonhuman elements of Sunnydale? Human collaborators are hardly unheard of and causing her trouble in school could be an attempt to turn her attachment to a civilian's life against her," Zabuto said as he appeared to digest the information.

"I did consider the matter at first and conducted some subtle tests to determine how knowledgeable he was of the demonic and the supernatural," he said, recalling the early days of Snyder's tenure as principal. "However he showed no recognition of several arcane items or even symbols commonly used by various demonic breeds that have historically used humans as minions. Given that the man is very 'honest' with his emotions, I doubt he was concealing his true reactions during my tests."

"Hmmmm… likely this means that another human was used as a go between to the demon behind his actions with the instructions phrased in such a way so as to appear ordinary," Zabuto said before pushing the matter aside. "I will conduct a follow up investigation of the man and determine if he is truly a collaborator or merely a spiteful man who enjoys making those under him suffer."

"I look forward to learning the results of the investigation," he said with a polite smile. "Now is there anything you or your partner wish to know in particular that was not covered in my reports?"

"Nothing of great importance. You were quite diligent with regards to detail in your reports," Zabuto said, returning the polite smile. "Besides, Slayer Young and I prefer to make our own appraisal of the area we are assigned to. Words on a page can only tell you so much, after all."

"What do you mean 'Slayer Young'?" he asked, his mind locking on to the anomaly in the fellow. "Historically there has only ever been one Slayer at a time and, while Buffy is currently incapacitated due to her injuries, she is still very much alive."

"Slayer Young was Called a little over five months ago. Based on the reports I've read, it is likely that she temporarily died before the civilian, Mister Harris, resuscitated her," Zabuto said with confusion at what he'd heard. "I was certain that the main branch sent a memo to every field Watcher apprising them of the unprecedented presence of two living Slayers."

"Apparently mine got lost in the mail," he said bitterly as he suspected that Travers had intentionally ensured he did not get the memo.

He couldn't fathom the purpose of doing such a thing but he strongly believed that his suspicions were correct.

"I shall call the main branch and have them send you a copy," Zabuto said, tossing the oddity aside as though it were inconsequential.

"Thank you," he said, showing the proper manners.

"Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to get properly situated in our temporary base of operations," Zabuto said before turning to the young woman. "Come, Slayer Young."

While a bit surprised that the man wouldn't choose to use the library as his base of operations, it was still understandable to choose another location as a base of operations. Thanks to his cover as school librarian, he could come and go as he pleased without arousing the suspicion of those not informed about the town's true nature. Even Buffy and her friends would not raise too many eyebrows as there was no small number of excuses that would appease the curiosity of a passerby. However it would be difficult to insert Mister Zabuto and Miss Young into Sunnydale with such short notice.

"Oh, and one more thing, Mister Giles," Zabuto said as he reached out for the library door. "Be sure to inform those civilians who have been aiding the Slayer that for the duration of my stay here with Slayer Young, their participation is neither requested nor desired. While I commend their courage, considering how most people would react to the truth, they are still amateurs that will only get in the way. If they truly wish to join the fight, have them enlist with the Watcher Academy after they graduate high school."

"I will inform them of your wishes," he said, not verbally committing to barring Willow and Xander from fighting on their own.

With a nod Zabuto left, with Slayer Young bowing respectfully towards him before following.

 _Faith in tradition and a dislike of anyone who does not have the same point of view,_ he thought with some disappointment. _I can see why Travers assigned him to Slayer Young and why Zabuto was sent here._

Indeed, it wasn't just to keep the local demons in check while Buffy recovered but also to be an example of what the Traditionalists consider to be an ideal Watcher.

Whether it was to make him feel inferior or ashamed he did not know and he very much doubted that Zabuto was aware of any hidden intent. In any case, it did not matter to him since he would not let something so petty to sway him from his chosen path of what he believed a Watcher should be. Even with the way he was treated as someone who strayed from the path of his house, he'd managed to get back some of his comrades respect. However those of high rank in the Traditionalist faction seemed unwilling to forget how he'd rejected his family Calling or see him as the equal of those who'd never strayed. He even had a suspicion that he'd been assigned to Buffy as her Watcher in the hopes that he would perish along with Buffy because Slayers who had not been raised by the Council were thought to be substandard by the members of the Traditionalist faction.

 _I will have to keep a close eye on Buffy until Zabuto and Slayer Young leave,_ he thought with a frown.

He prayed that it was just the sinister whisper of his 'Ripper' side causing trouble.

He preferred not to think of the alternative.

 _ **The Sanctum Sanctorum, One Week Later, Tala's POV**_

"That asshole! Just how low do you have to be try and feed someone in a coma to vampires just so you can get outta chemo!?" Alexander raged even as he worked his way through the potions assignment she'd given him.

"Everyone makes irrational choices when faced with imminent death, Alexander," she said as she continued to monitor his following of the process to make a simple mystical disinfectant. "Plus I've seen what happens to people undergoing chemo therapy. It isn't pretty."

"He's still an asshole for trying to feed Buffy to some vamps in exchange for being turned," Alexander muttered as he measured out the next ingredient.

"In that we are in agreement," she said with a sneer before focusing on the lesson at hand. "Now focus on what you are doing. Potion making bears several similarities to chemistry but the possible ways it can go wrong and be harmful are greater by orders of magnitude."

"I get it. Getting distracted leads to boom, bang and ouch," he said as he slowly administered the ingredient to the pot.

"It can lead to a great deal more than that if you're not careful," she said firmly to push down his flippancy. "Remember that both with spell casting and with potion making, the more potent your creation, the greater the consequences if you make a mistake."

Alexander just grunted an affirmative but she reluctantly conceded that he'd likely gotten the point. In truth he was doing fairly well considering his newness to actual magical instruction and was able to do simple things with his telekinesis almost without any effort. He still had trouble manipulating multiple objects at the same time, with the size of each as well as the path each had to take destabilizing his control. As far as the history of magic was concerned, it helped that a lot of it read like a big budget Hollywood movie sometimes since this managed to catch Alexander's attention and hold it. As for spell casting, she'd done what she could to keep things small to begin with, basic elemental manipulation, but if he progressed at the same rate with spells as he had with telekinesis, it would not be long before she could move on to the more advanced spells.

This 'teaching position' was proving to be easier to perform than she'd originally thought.

When she'd been preparing things for her first lesson with Alexander, she'd presumed that she would either have to force the young man to unlearn what he thought he knew or start at the VERY basics of magic. Instead her student proved to have a rather adaptable mind and, unless she was mistaken, he was smarter than he let on. He tried to play up the idea that he was an underachieving slacker who had only gotten as far as he had because of his redhead friend, but some of the problems she'd placed before him to solve were not the sort an idiot could solve. To her mind the only reason why someone would think this way would be if the slander had been conditioned into him for many years.

 _Probably a sibling or parent,_ she thought, recalling past examples of abuse. _Failing in their own lives and taking it out on Alexander. I imagine that the only reason why he hasn't crumbled entirely is because of Miss Rosenberg's encouragement._

With a bit of luck, the more progress he made in his mystical studies, the more confidence that he would gain and the more dedicated he would be to learning more. By the time she finished teaching him all she knew, she was confident that no one would be able to use the words 'useless' or 'stupid' in reference to him ever again.

That train of thought, however, brought up the unpleasant detail of the secret objective that her 'employers' wanted her to accomplish: customize her lessons to bring Alexander around to their way of thinking.

What way of thinking was that?

Mostly it could be summed up with the position that the forest was more important than any single tree, that it wasn't about winning a single battle but strategically fighting to win the entire war and that, with the exception of them, everyone was expendable towards that end. Naturally, for any mortal being who lived on Earth, this was not a satisfactory outlook, especially since she doubted that her bosses were all that into explaining themselves to their troops. If her job interview with them was any hint, they preferred that their employees simply do as they were told and trust that they knew best.

Too bad for higher beings they failed to realize that its almost impossible to trust people you don't know or that only communicate through intermediaries.

Still, with her freedom at stake, she'd already begun her secret mission by specifically choosing historical entries that showed the importance of being a team player or following the chain of command. Throw in a few entries where a person who defied orders cost the side of light a significant battle or cost many innocent people their lives and she'd begun her undermining of his independent attitude. It would take time to be sure before Alexander would be completely willing to serve her employers in the capacity they desired.

Unless, of course, her own secret plan worked out as she hoped it would.

If he could advance quickly enough in his studies, faster than her mental molding could keep up with, then he would become powerful enough and skilled enough to free her from the enslavement of her employers. Whether that meant breaking the spells and wards forcing her to do as they asked or provided her with a totally free and acceptable body to transfer her spirit into, either would be okay since it meant that she would once again be the mistress of her own destiny.

 _Of the two options, teaching him to break the spells and wards of obedience they placed on me would be easier,_ she thought as she watched the young man finish putting in the last of the ingredients. _Creating a surrogate body using sorcery is no easy task and likely would take longer than I am prepared to wait to make._

As such, once she felt that Alexander had advanced enough in his studies, she would begin to instruct him in how to break curses and overcome magical defenses. Both things would operate on principles similar to what ensured her obedience to her employers and therefore would allow her to plant the seeds of her own liberation right in plain sight.

Best of all, it was looking like everything she would need for her liberation was already within arm's reach. The house, Alexander's Sanctum Sanctorum, was a great deal bigger on the inside than it appeared on the outside, making her believe that dimensional magic was being used on a grand scale. In between her lessons with her student she had taken to exploring it so that she could see all that she had to work with and what she could perhaps obtain as her 'severance package'. After all, no one would know anything was missing except her and she'd need something to get her started in this new world. While she'd found enough entries in the books she'd read to know she had a counterpart, she doubted that she'd want to be mistaken for her.

A demoness by most accounts and an owner of a sizeable portion of real estate in hell, the woman's favorite past time was finding powerful men to lead to ruin or unleashing chaos on the mortal world. She had yet to find a modern day photograph of her double so she wasn't sure just how closely she resembled this dimension's Tala, but she'd prefer not to take chances. She'd spotted a few items that'd mask her visible features and keep anyone from managing a positive match between the local Tala's signature and her own. All she'd need was enough time to properly tune both when she knew that the time to depart had come.

"Okay, I think that just about does it," Alexander said as he stepped away from the pot.

"Let's see if you've succeeded in creating the disinfectant," she said as she walked over to inspect the contents of the pot.

Looking at the physical qualities, such as smell and color, Alexander's creation did match the own batch she'd put together earlier in the day. Taking a spoon, she scooped some up before tipping it slightly to watch how it flowed in order to test the texture of the liquid. That matched well with the established criteria.

However there was only one way to be completely certain.

"Alexander? Hold out your hand," she ordered as she acquired a fresh scoop.

Turning, she found her student had obeyed her order but looked a little uneasy, since he likely hadn't figured out the purpose yet.

Before he could connect the dots and plopped the entire contents of the spoon onto the palm of his hand.

"What the-?" Alexander asked, taking several steps back.

"Keep it in your hand," she replied firmly, reaching out to keep her student from tilting his hand. "If you brewed the disinfectant right it'll glow blue when it's done. Until that happens all you should feel in an intense tingle where it's made contact with your skin."

"And if I made a mistake?" Alexander asked warily.

"Then it won't change color or tingle," she replied, completely unconcerned. "Don't worry. I am not so reckless that I would place anything that could truly hurt you in your hand."

"Thank god for the little things!" Alexander commented sarcastically even as he tore off a sheet from a roll of paper towel before wiping the disinfectant off his hand.

She allowed herself a small smirk at the comment.

While not always amusing, Alexander's moments of levity did help to make an otherwise boring class a little more bearable.

Though there were a few jokes that had her rolling her eyes in exasperation rather than amusement.

He was a teenage boy after all.

 _ **The Streets of Sunnydale, A Few Days Later, Evening, Xander's POV**_

 _That settles it: Tala's a perfectionist!_ he thought, walking across town to the house he slept in.

He refused to call it his home.

He'd gone to the Sanctum Sanctorum earlier in the evening for another lesson but instead had gotten a pop quiz. Doing the best that he could he went from question to question, answering them to the best of his ability while still uneasy since he generally preferred to have some study time before taking a test. When he'd finished he'd turned it in and waited patiently for Tala to grade it since it'd take only a couple of minutes given that there was only one student in the entire class.

He'd passed, but only just.

Then Tala spent the rest of the class going over the questions he'd gotten wrong until the right answers were burned into his skull.

Unfortunately it'd taken a little longer than he would've liked since it'd been dark out when he'd left the Sanctum. While he didn't consider himself to be quite as defenseless as he used to be thanks to what he'd learned from Tala, he still didn't like the idea of walking home alone.

Demons of just about any breed tended to target the prey that was as alone as he currently was, so the sooner he got behind the threshold of the Harris house, the better he'd feel.

When a bright golden light flared from the front facing center of his collarbone, though, he got the distinct feeling that any plans for a swift return home had gone right out the window. Looking down, he at first only saw a mass of energy in the form of a disk but a few seconds later it made the transition to become solid matter. What he saw was something he had not seen since before the Halloween spell had kicked in and he'd assumed that he'd just lost it at some point.

The Eye of Agamotto.

Or the thing he borrowed from Giles that his mind now tagged as being the Eye of Agamotto.

From what he could see there'd been a few cosmetic changes to the item since he'd borrowed it from Giles late Halloween afternoon but it was essentially the same item.

However, when the clockwork-like mechanisms began to move on their own to reveal the mystical eye within, he realized that the amulet was capable of more than just disappearing than reappearing. With all the subtlety of a metal bat to the head the world perceived through his eyes changed and he was plunged into an environment where black smoke tinged with orange as soaked into everything, including himself. Stunned by what he was seeing, he looked at the area to find that there existed different wisps of energy floating through the air but it looked like they were either being destroyed or absorbed by the smoke.

It was only when his eyes fell upon a trail of sickly green energy floating in the air that he felt a tug from the Eye that made him think that it was this that'd caused the amulet to appear and activate. Was it trying to warn him of something? Or get him to follow the green energy for some reason? Whatever the reason his curiosity was strong enough that he decided he would track the energy back to its source because, if it turned out that it came from something or someone harmful, Giles needed to know.

Taking his school bag off, he opened it up and pulled out the only thing that Tala had told him to keep close to him at all times when he was outside: The Cloak of Levitation.

Tala believed that until he was suitably skilled in casting spells of defense and offense he would need a way to escape if vampires or demons attacked him. When he took into the fact that thing seemed to have a mind of its own to a degree and would follow him on its own if he didn't take it with him in some manner he agreed to stuff it in his book bag. It made carrying his school books to and from the school a little difficult but no one who saw him enter class seemed to pay it any mind.

Though that might have more to do with his status as the school outcast and the son of the town drunks.

Twirling the cape over his shoulders, he secured the golden clasp below his neck before willing himself into the air since it'd be safer to follow the green energy from a direction people usually didn't look. His ability to control and direct the cloak wasn't perfect but at least he no longer flit about like a bird with its head cut off, so he'd call that progress. Looking down using the Eye's enhancing properties, he locked onto the green energy and began to follow it looking for where it seemed fresher rather than faded and old.

Floating along, he saw the energy leave the residential area and cross through the business area but it was only when he extrapolated the path it might follow that he got worried and sped up.

The school!

Sharpening his gaze so that he would spot the source the second it entered his field of vision, he began to notice something based on the stuff he found along the path. Knocked over trashcans, stuff that you'd find in someone's pocket scattered on the ground near fences just short enough for a person to climb over and one pair of people that looked like they'd encountered something odd. All signs that something or someone was running helter skelter in a straight line, unwilling to take the time to slow down and find an easier route. The fact that they were knocking things over or losing stuff from their pockets and choosing not to pick them up afterwards made him think that it was a chase scenario. Someone was running from something scary enough that speed and distance matter more than picking up anything dropped.

 _Assuming the person running is human why aren't they running to someplace more populated?_ he thought, puzzled. _When you're scared, you normally want help and that means going to someplace where there're people. The school's closed at night. Only a few faculty members and the janitorial staff there._

That meant to him that there was someone at the school the terrified person wanted to get to because that would make them safe.

Ceasing his scrutiny of the ground below, he willed the cloak to its top speed and headed for the school, intent on getting there in time to help the poor soul that was so terrified.

The wind parted on the surface of his face as he flew towards the school, only peripherally keeping an eye on the energy trail just in case his guess about a destination turned out wrong. However, as the school got to within sight, he heard someone crying out for help and so he dove towards where he figured the source had to be. Once close enough, he immediately spotted the source of the green energy in the form of a shambling female corpse that looked to only just be keeping itself together as it moved towards a terrified man at one of the locked school entrances.

Wanting to know more about what he was dealing with he focused his gaze on the zombie candidate and, as if in response to his wishes, the information being fed to his eyes changed. Instead of just being shown the energy the zombie was giving off, he now saw an overlay of something decidedly not human over the corpse. More than that, though, his instincts were telling him that there wasn't a trace of humanity left in the thing.

 _So not a voodoo zombie risen from the grave but a demon that decided to shack up in a decidedly decayed corpse,_ he thought as he reached out with his telekinesis before flinging the inhabited body away from the terrified man. _Best keep it at more than arm's length until I get a better idea of what I'm dealing with._

"Don't suppose you'd be willing to tell me what I'm up against?" he asked the man as he watched the demon force its corpse host back to its feet.

"Its name is Eyghon! A demon from another realm!" the man babbled, willing to say anything so long as it kept him safe. "It can only exist in our reality through a host body! It doesn't need to be alive or dead, though the former lasts longer than the latter since the demon's presence will rot its host from within over time."

"Well, that makes this easy enough," he said as he reached out with both hands and seized the wobbling corpse telekinetically.

Taking it off the ground, he then channeled all the power he could into literally tearing the corpse the demon was in into as many small pieces as possible. It wasn't as hard as he'd thought it would be, most likely due to the advanced state of decay, but, based on the information the man had provided, the demon should be back in its own realm. There were no bodies around that he could see and any bodies that might've been buried on Sunnydale High grounds would be useless since most, if not all of them, would be little more than skin and bones. Since Buffy had come to Sunnydale and the Scoobies were formed, the number of fatalities on school property had dropped, so it was unlikely that Eyghon would have anything convenient to jump into.

When the various dismembered pieces transformed into piles of luminescent green goo, he took that to mean that the demon had departed hopefully for good.

 _Still, best not to assume anything,_ he thought as he turned to the older man, who looked to be calming down somewhat. _Better get this guy to Giles._

"Knowing my luck, though, we just bought ourselves some time," he said, walking towards the man. "I'm assuming since you're British that you're here for Giles?"

"You know Rupert?" the man asked, sounding a bit surprised.

"For the last year and a half and before you ask I know about the things that go bump in the night," he said as he reached out, telekinetically turning the door handle from the other side to open the door.

"I assumed as much given your familiarity with sorcery," the man said as the two of them entered the school. "You are rather adept for your age."

"I've caught a few lucky breaks," he said, navigating the hallways almost without thinking about it.

A few minutes later they arrived at the library to find G-Man hard at work as usual. At the sound of the library doors opening, though, the Watcher turned towards the new arrivals, eyes widening as they locked on the fellow Brit.

"Phillip! My word, man! What are you doing here?" Giles asked, sounding both shocked as well as haunted by what he saw.

"He's back, Rupert! Eyghon is back!" Phillip exclaimed with a voice full of fear.

The look of fear and regret the exploded on his surrogate father's face, followed by a ghost of self-loathing, made him realize that this was more than just a bit of left over demon slaying.

This was personal.

"Well, it's in pieces… pools, actually, since it turned into glowing goo after I dismembered him telekinetically… and according to Phillip he needs either an unconscious body or a dead one to do anything," he said, forwarding what'd happened outside. "Unless there're a lot of bodies buried on school property, it's not coming back any time soon."

"Perhaps. However it need not be a human body to act as a host, they are simply the most useful," Giles explained, sounding a little distracted and unguarded. "If its human form is no more than it'll seek out anything ranging from a rat scurrying through tunnels to even insects. It will then look for as long and as far as he has to in order to find a more suitable host and then come for me and Phillip once more."

"Then we've got to get the two of you someplace safe until we can figure out a way of taking it out permanently," he said, already having a possibility in mind.

"There's nowhere you can take us where it can't follow," Phillip said, sounding quite certain of that fact.

"There's one place you haven't tried yet: the Sanctum Sanctorum," he said, hoping his suspicions about the house's protections turned out to be true. "If half the things Tala's told me about it are true, as long as I don't give it permission, Eyghon won't be able to get in."

G-Man considered this for a moment but his fear made him choose quickly.

"Then let's go. The sooner we get to a safe place, the clearer my mind will be to find a solution to this problem." Giles said, showing his agreement with the plan of action.

"Then let's hope that I've got the knack for this," he said as he pulled out an item that Tala insisted that he have on him at all times in case the cloak of levitation proved inadequate.

At first glance it looked like half a pair of brass knuckles with an inscribed metal plate attached to the front where it'd impact flesh if the wearer threw a punch. However the official name for it was 'Sling Ring' and it was a means by which a sorcerer could travel great distances and it did not take any of the wielder's own magic in order to be used.

True, until now he'd never tried to open a portal to someplace he couldn't see with his own eyes but thus far in practice he'd been able to consistently generate them.

Putting the item on his dominant hand, he directed it to where he wanted the portal to appear before waving the other hand in a circle while envisioning the street in front of the Sanctum Sanctorum. While he'd considered opening one inside the house, he wasn't sure if that'd even work, much less be safe. Besides once they got outside the house they'd be just a few short steps from the Sanctum's front door, so the odds that this Eyghon would be able to attack either Giles or Phillip would be small.

He ignored the gasps that came from Phillip and G-Man, focusing entirely on the destination point, the circular motions of his hand and utilizing the energy of the Sling Ring. Watching as a trail of golden sparks manifested from nowhere, moving in perfect synch with his moving hand, it didn't take long for the trail to becoming like a snake eating its own tail. A few seconds after this the air within the circle shimmered and changed to become not the interior of the library but the open air outside of the Sanctum.

"Step through. The portal will only last thirty seconds or so without the hand motions to keep it stable," he said as he strode towards the stable portal.

With only a light tremor of uneasiness he stepped through, going from the library to the front door of the Sanctum Sanctorum before he stepped aside to allow the two Brits to follow him. Looking at their faces, he could see their unease was much higher than his own but their long friendship proved enough for Giles to take a leap of faith. As for Phillip, apparently he considered Giles enough of a friend to follow and before long both older men were through, just seconds before the portal collapsed into nothingness.

"Remarkable talisman. It can take you anywhere?" Giles asked as they advanced towards the front door of the Sanctum.

"Anywhere I can clearly envision in my mind," he replied as the door to the Sanctum opened to admit him. "The stronger the image, the more likely a connection will be formed."

Stepping across the threshold of the Sanctum, he wasn't surprised to see Tala waiting for him since she'd proven strong enough to sense the forming of the Sling Ring's portal.

"Forget something, Alexander?" Tala asked with concern and suspicion.

"No. We've got a problem of the possessing demon kind and I've got two targets in need of sanctuary," he replied with the seriousness that the situation required. "Until we find a way to vanquish the demon for good, they're staying here."

For a moment it looked like Tala was going to reprimand him for making such a decision without consulting her first but she just sighed in defeat.

"And what is the name of this demon?" Tala asked, turning to lead the group deeper into house.

"Eyghon," he replied, hoping that the many books inside the Sanctum Sanctorum would hold the key to vanquishing the threat to one he'd come to consider family.

 _ **The Next Morning, The Sanctum Sanctorum, Giles' POV**_

 _Never before have I been so glad that I chose to keep something to myself,_ he thought as he continued to read through a book specializing in possession demons.

Initially it'd only been out of friendship with Xander and his status as the house's caretaker that'd caused him to keep the building's existence a secret from the Council. The young man might've been brash, reckless and immature but Xander had also shown courage beyond his years as well as a loyalty few could boast. Not everyone could stand fast when confronted with the darker aspects of the world, and even those who did so in the beginning frequently changed their minds once the level of danger reached a certain point.

Xander had yet to find his tipping point.

Now, though, after being exposed to mere hours worth of what the house contained, he now knew that he must do all he could to ensure that none of it ever fell into the wrong hands. Any one book likely contained secrets that few outside of the mystic community's elite knew and perhaps even some information that not even they knew. In the right hands he imagined that this knowledge could do tremendous good, allowing the light to gain some major ground in the fight against the darkness. However in the wrong hands, in evil hands, the number of lives that could be lost or made to suffer was too terrible for even him to contemplate. While he did not believe Travers and his supporters to be evil per se, he did believe that the leader of the traditionalists would wish to employ the Sanctum's contents in official Council operations. However this would attract the wrong attention from people and factions interested in finding out where their longtime enemy had suddenly acquired the extra mystical muscle.

Far from fools, the dark forces would fight the battle on two fronts, seeking to trace the new magic back to its source while attempting to acquire a sample to analyze on their own. Sooner or later they'd learn enough to go from simply gathering information to aggressively attempting to take it all for their own. He did not doubt Xander's potential, he'd seen far too much to do that, but he did believe that it would take more time than would be possible if Travers had his way with the items in this house.

For the greatest good to be gained from both Xander's magical potential and the contents of this house, both had to remain a secret until they could metaphorically stand on their own two feet.

"This house is a wonder, Rupert!" Phillip declared, laying back in his chair and taking a break from his reading. "You can almost feel the magic surrounding us."

"That is most likely because it is made of magic, Phillip," he said as he looked up from his own book. "Prior to this past Halloween this house did not exist. While I do not know the particulars of its creation, I would wager that much of the energy responsible was provided by Janus himself."

"The Roman god? Interesting. Part of a grander scheme perhaps?" Phillip proposed as he considered the information.

"Unlikely. While Ethan might have been mistaken in calling Janus a god of chaos, the Roman's other domains indicate a more hands off position once he's completed his initial goal," he replied after a moment of thought.

"Perhaps," Phillip conceded before looking back at the book he'd been reading. "Any luck finding a way out of our predicament?"

"Nothing thus far, though I am now much more informed on such beings than I was yesterday," he replied with a sigh as he looked at the words written on the page. "We were such damn fools, Phillip! Dabbling in matters we barely had the loosest grasp of in search of something as transitory as pleasure!"

"We were young then, Rupert, and the young often make mistakes," Phillip said in a comforting tone. "We learned from out mistake and became the wiser for it, though I truly wish that such wisdom had not come at such a high price."

"Indeed. On the bright side, though, we've been here for hours and have not heard even a thump on the door, never mind indications of an intruder," he said as he tried to brighten the mood a bit. "I would say that Xander's suggestion to seek sanctuary here was a good one."

"I quite agree. Short of finding someone either of us knows and using them as a Trojan horse, I would say we are safe so long as we do not step outside." Phillip said as he turned a page in his book.

"I am merely thankful that this chose to happen on a weekend and that I have not used up all my sick days. So long as Principal Snyder does not choose to share his misery with me through an abuse of power, I believe we should have time enough to resolve the dilemma we currently face," he said with measured optimism in his voice.

"Sorry to rain on your parade, Mister Giles, but it looks like you might be back to work sooner than anticipated," Tala said as she returned with a scroll in hand.

"You found something?" he asked, letting a measured bit of hope enter his heart.

"Indeed. While we currently do not possess the means the kill Eyghon, I believe with information on this scroll we may succeed barring it from this dimension." Tala cleared a portion of the table before unrolling the scroll she'd brought with her.

Looking at the contents of the scroll, he found himself confronted with a language he had not worked with since his days at the Watcher Academy. Still, he was able to make out much of it and it did indeed read like a banishment spell that could be secured to a specific entity. His only concern was that the complexity might well be a bit too much for him to pull off without assistance. Then, of course, there was the matter of the components required to properly marshal the energy needed to banish Eyghon from the mortal realm.

"And you are confident that we can perform this ritual?" he asked, hoping that some of his concerns could be allayed.

"Yes. We already have the necessary ingredients and the required practitioners," Tala replied with confidence in her words. "The risk comes with getting whoever or whatever Eyghon possesses into the target area so it will be affected by the ritual. Neither of you will be able to get close and most of my time will be spent setting up the ritual."

"Then who will lure Eyghon in?" he asked, confused as to how the last role would be filled.

"Xander will be the one to draw Eyghon into our web," Tala replied with a firm decisiveness.

Instinctively he rebelled against the idea of putting the young man anywhere near Eyghon but, upon reviewing of the known facts, conceded that so long as Xander kept his distance he would be safe.

Presuming, of course, that Eyghon had no hidden tricks up his nefarious sleeve.

While there were many books explaining how to call upon the demon and others that described the creature's characteristics, none of them could be said to truly contain all there was to know. If Eyghon possessed some manner of ability or power not previously known to mankind, something it'd been unwilling to show before, then there was no way of knowing whether or not Xander would be able to handle it. These thoughts only caused him anxiety and concern as possible negative scenarios swam about inside his mind circling his consciousness.

 _Enough! Fearing what is unknown aids no one,_ he thought, firmly chastising himself. _Fear is the weapon of the enemy. Do NOT give it to Eyghon._

"So long as there's a contingency plan for Xander to escape should any …unpleasant surprises… occur, I do not object to this plan," he said, showing where he stood on the entire idea.

"Don't worry. I am not about to risk the life of my student unnecessarily," Tala said with a confident smile. "I've already briefed him on a plan and he is currently applying a series of wards and protective accessories that should keep Eyghon at bay should the demon get too close."

"He created these wards himself?" he asked, a bit surprised that wards created by a novice would be effective against Eyghon.

"No, I did. Given his insistence on protecting the innocent, I decided to take certain precautions, one of which was to create several stored spells and wards," Tala replied, implying that she found protecting the innocent to be a waste of time. "They need only be spoken or the corresponding symbol touched to be activated. The only drawback is that they're not as powerful as they would be if Alexander cast them on the spot himself. Hopefully that won't be a problem."

"Quite," he said as he finished looking over the scroll. "According to this the ritual needs to be performed at precisely midnight to achieve maximum effectiveness."

"Then I suggest that you and Phillip take the time to properly prepare yourselves," Tala said as she began walking away. "You're going to need every bit of strength you can muster."

To finally atone for his sin and to be free of Eyghon, he would ensure that his performance tonight would impress even his father.

It crept and it crawled.

It searched and sought.

It had encountered unforeseen resistance in its effort to kill and possess the one known as Phillip but it would win in the end. It had found the body of a sleeping beast after its last host had perished but it had not resumed the hunt immediately. The unforeseen obstacle, a sorcerer of some sort, had to be taken into consideration in order to ensure that his next assault did not end in failure like the previous one had. Demons would not work since their protections against possession were stronger than he could penetrate at the moment.

Instead he travelled to a place where he could sense many vulnerable humans.

It proved bothersome that it was forced to avoid the humans lumbering about but it knew that it would be less bothersome than what would happen if they became aware of it.

Little by little it explored, using what senses were available to it in order to evaluate each potential host. He looked not just for the strength of body but also for something extra that could aid it in overcome the sorcerer. It knew all too well that Hellmouths tended to attract the unusual and the powerful so its hopes were high.

Time was only loosely comprehended but eventually it found what it sought.

Indeed the host was almost perfect, with its mind almost completely withdrawn in on itself as well as possessing power that the host only barely was tapping into. Once it succeeded in taking the host it would add its power to what it already possessed, allowing it to possess might enough to overcome the sorcerer.

Once that was done taking the souls of Rupert, Ethan and Phillip would be simplicity itself.

Crawling into the room at large it approached its future host, using whatever means was available to get as close as possible. With its current host so small and rapidly decaying under the weight of its power, it could not reach very far outside of it.

Upon being ready it acted and it almost missed the pathetic wail a host often gave out once it caught a glimmer of its fate.

Almost.

 _ **Less Than An Hour To Midnight, The Skies Above Sunnydale, Xander's POV**_

 _C'mon, Eye-guy! Where are you?_ he thought as he flew over Sunnydale to find the latest host body that the demon had chosen to squat in.

With the Eye of Agamotto obliging his wish to enhance his vision he was sweeping the city, looking for any sign the creature. Honestly he was sort of glad to be flying because most of the day had been spent preparing the ritual components, as well as going over strategy for finally taking down Eyghon. He'd almost been worried that Willow might come looking for him, only to remember that he had yet to show her where the Sanctorum was. It wasn't that he didn't think she had a right to know where it was just in case of emergencies but rather that he wanted to build up some proficiency in sorcery before bringing her in for her own training.

He wanted to be the one to be the tutor, the one that was smart, just so he could repay her for all the times that she'd pulled his ass out of the fire in class.

 _If everything goes good, tonight I'll bring her in,_ he thought as he continued to look for the signature energy that had led him to the possessed body last time.

It was as he approached the hospital that he caught his first sight of green energy floating in the air and it looked like it was going FROM the place of healing TO the northeast. Obviously Eyghon had decided to choose an ailing human as its host since the demon could likely takeover without much of a fight. However one would think that a sick person would also be less able to sustain the possession.

 _Whoever it decided to hijack probably won't be showing any visible signs of possession right away,_ he thought as he descended to the exit point of the green energy. _Still, it'd be a good idea to find out whose face it's wearing._

From what he could tell, Eyghon had left the hospital through the rear entrance, implying that whatever form it'd take it'd been in a windowless room prior to possession. Without a window, sneaking out undetected was not an option so that meant slinking past hospital employees and civilians visiting loved ones without being seen.

Not impossible given the obliviousness some people had to the supernatural in Sunnydale but you'd still think someone would've spotted something odd.

"Inuisibilitas," he said, activating the canned spell to turn him invisible as he touched down just outside of the reach of the hospital lights.

Quietly slipping in behind a male nurse who'd stepped out for a smoke, he soon was in the hospital, carefully navigating his way as he followed the emerald energy back the way it'd come. The spell concealing him from sight was limited to just that sense so, in order to remain unheard, he needed to be careful not to rustle his cape or step too loudly as he proceeded.

Just like he'd thought the trail looked to have come from the wing of the hospital where you'd find patients in need of long term care rather than having something that could be fixed up in a month at most. A minute later he turned a corner and spied the barely visible green energy coming from a door, confirming that he'd at last reached the room that once had been occupied by Eyghon's unlucky host body. He was about to approach the door when he heard the sound of two sets of feet getting closer and decided to wait until the duo had passed by before opening the door. Even if the citizens of Sunnydale were oblivious to a lot, they'd notice a door opening and closing without any visible cause and probably investigate.

A complication he DIDN'T need at the moment.

"Has there been any progress, Doctor Kelley?" a familiar voice asked, causing him to freeze with recognition.

"We are doing all we can, Missus Summers," Doctor Kelley replied with a kind tone that felt right for a doctor. "Most of her physical wounds are well on the way to fully healing but the brain and her mind… there is still so much we just don't know about both. Nevertheless, I've been catching up on the latest medical journals focusing on head injuries and comas to see if there is anything we haven't tried yet. If worse comes to worse, I would like your permission to contact a few specialists I know to see if there's anything they can contribute."

"Of course, Doctor Kelley. Anything to get my little girl back," Missus S said, throwing her full support behind anything that might wake Buffy up.

And he was right there with her on that point.

If there was someone Doctor Kelley could contact who could help, he was all for it. Ever since the first night he'd been told of Buffy's condition he'd tried visiting but, when that'd become too emotionally trying, he'd chosen to focus on his mystical studies. It'd been his hope that something in the Sanctum Sanctorum might aid in her recovery but he'd soon found out that independent reading wasn't as helpful as he'd thought it'd be. He'd gone to Tala about it in case she could do something but she'd told him that healing magic was a great deal more complicated than most fictional sources made it out to be. As for the possibility of a potion doing the trick, his teacher did concede that arcane medicines did exist but that they usually either counteracted supernatural afflictions or enhanced a person's own natural recuperative powers. When added to the existence of Buffy's Slayerness, Tala didn't want to risk mixing biological factors unless they had no other choice.

He figured he'd wait ten months before telling her that they didn't have any other choice.

Listening to them talk, he watched them advance down the hallway and decided that once they were two or three feet past him he'd go to the room Eyghon had been in. A quick look at the chart inside would at least let him know if he should be looking for a man or a woman, as well as how old the person was physically speaking.

"I just hope that I can afford to pay for the help she needs," Missus S said with some concern. "Business at the Gallery is going well but, depending on just how much the treatments cost-"

He hadn't considered that.

Every time that Tony had knocked him about hard enough to need a trip to the hospital, he'd just been taken there, treated and then released with no one expecting him to pay the bill. Tony grumbled enough afterwards about the cost of the trip and made him work himself almost to exhaustion as compensation. With Buffy in a coma, it was a foregone conclusion that her stay would be long indeed and that that stay would require regular payments to maintain. Without knowing just how much money Missus S made per month, he had no idea how close to the red paying for Buffy's hospital stay would put her but he prayed it wouldn't be too bad.

"Now don't you worry! The new Mayor Alan Finch has been making grand gestures ever since he was formally sworn into office," Doctor Kelley said, placing a comforting hand on Joyce's shoulder. "When he heard of your daughter's condition, he promised to fully fund her recovery. He even spoke with the hospital director about setting aside this room just for her."

This room? What?

The last time he'd visited, Buffy he might not've paid close attention to which section of the hospital her room had been located in but he was fairly certain it wasn't in this wing. A bad feeling began to creep into his heart and he prayed that he was just imagining things.

The wrong sort of deity must've been listening because, like a scene out of a nightmare, both Doctor Kelley and Joyce Summers came to a stop right outside the door that the green energy trail had led him to. His defiance wanted to believe that the person Eyghon had taken as a host as a hospital employee or perhaps a patient that'd been put in the same room temporarily. Still as stone he waited to hear some manner of confirmation of his personal theory so that he could get rid of the terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"AAAHHHH!" Joyce screamed in a mix of shock and worry.

"This is Doctor Kelley! We have a missing patient in the long term treatment wing!" came the doctor's voice from the speakers mounted on the hallway walls. "Patient's name is Buffy Summers: a short teenage girl with shoulder length blonde hair! Patient was comatose at last condition check two hours ago! All available hospital employees are to begin searching the building IMMEDIATELY!"

"No!" he exclaimed before whirling around and running back the way he came so he could get outside.

A terrible scenario he had not even contemplated had occurred and now his job of getting Eyghon's host to the ritual site was that much more complicated. As an ordinary human host he at most had to worry about would be twice the level of physical prowess but now with a possessed Slayer… the rules had changed.

The moment he got outside he took to the sky and established a lock on the green airborne energy, willing the cloak of levitation to carry him as swiftly as possible after the source. There was no telling what Eyghon would make Buffy do or how quickly the possession demon would home in on Phillip and Giles. Before this disaster of a development, he'd been fully prepared to use some of the more damaging spells Tala had given him since he believed there was no hope for Eyghon's host. Now that he knew it was Buffy… he wasn't so certain.

Could the fact that Buffy was the Slayer give her a chance at survival that normal humans wouldn't? Could they somehow pull Eyghon out of his blonde friend?

"Mens-loquatur," he said, activating the communications spell Tala had given him.

It only took a moment for him to feel the connection form.

 _Yes, Alexander. What is it?_ Tala thought in inquiry.

 _We've got a problem. I found out who Eyghon decided to take as its new host,_ he thought back his mind filled with concern. _It's Buffy._

Silence followed for a few seconds, not that he blamed her considering how much more difficult their plan had just become.

 _Do you think you can still get her to the ritual site?_ she thought at him with limited optimism.

 _Oh, I'll get her there,_ he thought with loyal determination. _What condition we'll both be in when I get her there is a little more iffy._

 _Do what you can but be careful,_ she thought with the authority of an instructor. _If the ritual is to succeed we need you well enough to do your part._

 _Copy that,_ he thought to her before he shut down the communication spell.

Thank God he had the easy job!

 _ **A Bland and Unremarkable House Five Minutes From Sunnydale High School**_

 _ **Sam Zabuto's POV**_

"You are certain?" he asked into phone.

"Quite sure. I've already scrubbed the security footage of her leaving and replaced it with a recording of the same time last week," the Council source on the other end replied. "Slayer Summers had definitely become possessed by some manner of being and it looks as though it is in complete control."

This was worrisome.

The Council source had been keeping him apprised of the health of Slayer Young's predecessor on a regular basis and, while not completely hopeless, it was not encouraging. The combination of the loss of blood with the head injury sustained before her Slayer powers could fully reassert themselves had resulted a condition that normally would not be an issue. Chairman Travers had voiced the opinion that, on tactical reasons if nothing else, they should arrange for Slayer Summers to be injected with a lethal but untraceable compound immediately. His reasoning was that having a Slayer in such a vulnerable condition in such a demon infested town opened up the possibility of the young woman being abducted. If demonkind were given the opportunity to study the physiology of a Slayer more closely, it was not unfeasible that they might develop an effective countermeasure. In the past no Slayer had ever landed intact into demonic hands, whether that was due to precautions by the Council or because the confrontation that killed her rarely left a viable corpse.

The moderates, however opposed this course of action, citing that with the recuperative abilities of the Slayer, Buffy Summers could awaken at any time. They also pointed out that intelligence reports regarding Sunnydale suggested that an unknown major player had somehow been removed from the Hellmouth's power structure. As a result the various factions that had once rested comfortably in their roles were now jockeying for a stronger position in the pecking order. The moderates believed that this civil war that was brewing would be enough to keep the major players occupied for months at the very least. With Slayer Young adding to the commotion, it was tactically feasible to give Slayer Summers more time to recover from her coma.

In this case the moderates won and the motion was carried to wait until the demonic community finished setting up their new pecking order before deciding on what to do with Slayer Summers.

This latest development changed matters.

"Were there any defining features? Any signs of what might be possessing her?" he asked, hoping to narrow down possible culprits in order to decide on what to do next.

"Glowing green eyes and, while it was hard to tell for certain, I believe her ears might've become somewhat point at the tips," the Council source replied. "Not larger than normal human ears bit still pointed."

 _Hmmm. This does not indicate anything too powerful. At least not for the time being,_ he thought as he considered the information. _Fledgling vampires do not distort the physical form of their host body very much at first but, given enough time, it can become much worse._

Thus he was faced with the possibility of a weak demonic force controlling the body of a Slayer or a demonic force that would only grow stronger with time, further altering Miss Summers' form to suit its desires.

"Thank you for the information. I will ensure that the necessary compensation is deposited into your bank account," he said, deciding that nothing more needed to be spoken of. "Goodbye."

Hanging up, he pondered how best to handle the situation.

Without knowing the name and agenda of the demonic force controlling Slayer Summers, it was impossible to ascertain its motives or what it planned on doing next. It could be on its own and that would make it difficult to locate, especially if it chose to remain low profile and not take full advantage of a Slayer's body. If it worked for a faction, however, they would likely it would likely be months before they used Slayer Summers' powers to achieve dominance over the others.

An even worse scenario, however, would be if the demonic force or faction chose to use a live and intact Slayer body as a bargaining chip for a deal with one of the national demonic factions.

If Wolfram and Hart got ahold of Slayer Summers' body… it could potentially become a turning point in the war against the darkness, the tide turning against the light.

 _The risk is too great,_ he thought with the grimness that came with making a difficult decision.

Reaching out with his right hand, he picked up a bell he'd brought with him from Jamaica and rang it three times. A few minutes later Slayer Young entered the room with the composure of the weapon he'd trained her to be from an early age. The moderates considered his methods harsh and overly restrictive. They, however, failed to grasp that this was a war they were fighting and it was against a foe that would use any means necessary to win that war. In order to grant them as few openings as possible, the Chosen Champion needed to keep the weaknesses that came with being human at arm's length, if not further. No friends or family to be used as leverage, if not Trojan Horses. No vices or interests that could be used as manipulation tools by the enemy. No romantic entanglements that might cause a Slayer to hesitate at a crucial moment.

In this war, the Slayer and the Watcher's Council needed to win every single time.

The enemy only needed to win once to unleash hell on Earth.

"You have a mission tonight. A demonic entity has possessed your predecessor Slayer Summers' body and taken it from the hospital. We do not yet know its intentions," he explained like a commanding officer should. "Nevertheless I have decided that we cannot take the risk of the power Miss Summers' body possesses being used against us in some fashion. You are to hunt her down and destroy the body completely."

Opening the top drawer of his desk, he withdrew a vial containing a crimson liquid that almost looked to be on fire somehow.

"This vial contains liquid dragon's breath. Pour it over the remains. Leave nothing to be analyzed," he ordered as he passed the vial to Slayer.

"Understood," Slayer Young said as she took the vial.

With that the pupil left to complete her mission and he was left with a task of his own.

 _It will not take Mister Giles long to learn that his Slayer has been possessed and is no longer at the hospital,_ he thought as he rose from his chair. _He will almost certainly attempt to find her and free her from her possession. Given Chairman Travers' warning that Watcher Giles might be needlessly attached to his Slayer, there is a chance he might irrationally obstruct Slayer Young._

Better to nip that problem in the bud before it had a chance to grow into anything more.

Heading for the door, he decided he would go to his fellow Watcher and attempt to distract the man under the pretense of engaging in idle gossip about the current goings on in the Council. He personally didn't like gossip but that didn't mean he didn't overhear some from time to time. Pretending to indulge in such things would put his comrade at ease and, so long as he made sure to sever the phone line, the man should remain wonderfully oblivious. Oh, he'd find out the next day once word got around town about a missing patient at the hospital, but by then the mission would be completed.

 _Keeping you from seeing your Slayer's fate is the only kindness I can give you, Rupert,_ he thought as he walked towards the door. _While the mission of the Council insists that we remain detached from our charges, that does not mean we are completely heartless._

He sent a silent prayer to the heavens that whatever posting Rupert Giles received next would be a good match to his talents while not being as trying on his heart.


End file.
